CAIRO: Silence and despair loomed over Egypt Wednesday night as the national football team lost their tiebreaker against Algeria in Sudan in a bid to secure a qualification ticket to the World Cup in South Africa next summer.
Algerian defender, Antar Yahia scored the game’s only goal in the 40th minute, clinching a spot for his team after a 24-year absence from the world football stage.
The game started in a tense atmosphere. While the Egyptian team had the attacking initiative, the Algerian team adopted a counter-attack strategy which proved dangerous as Abdel-Qader Ghezzal sent a strong header saved by goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary in the first minutes of the game.
Abdel-Zaher El-Saqqa responded quickly in the fourth minute with a strong header from Abou-Trika’s corner saved by Algerian goalkeeper Fawzi Chaouchi, playing his first official game.
Referee Eddy Maillet intervened with yellow cards several times, with Nazir Belhadj of Algeria receiving the first booking of the game at the second minute followed by Abdel-Qader Ghezzal at the 21st minute after dangerous clashes with Ahmed El-Mohammadi and El-Hadary.
As both teams tried to control midfield, Algerian set pieces constituted a real threat to El-Hadary after Belhadj almost scored from a free kick from the left side.
Egypt’s first serious scoring chance came at the 30th minute when Egyptian winger, Sayed Moawad took advantage of a counterattack and sent a land cross to Abou-Trika whose shot was close.
El-Mohammadi almost scored two minutes later after he dribbled through Algerian defenders before sending a slow shot saved by Caouchi’s fingertips.
While Algerian players fell back in defense for the rest of the game, Egypt continued to pressure with more than six players; however, Egyptian attacks lacked the decisive touch.
On the other hand, Algerian players resorted to time wasting tactics with every whistle from Maillet to the frustration of Egyptian fans.
Ghezzal almost scored Algeria s second at the 60th minute from a dangerous header tipped away by El-Hadary after an Algerian counterattack from the right flank.
Egypt s response came two minutes later when Zidan dribbled through two Algerian defenders and sent a pass into the box; but Emad Meteb failed to equalize as his shot was saved by Chaouchi.
Abou-Trika missed a chance from a one-on-one ball as his shot was deflected by the keeper to find Zidan, whose shot was put away by Algerian defense.
Egypt s attacking efforts failed to change the result in the remaining time and the additional four minutes until Maillet whistled to end the game, sending Algeria to the World Cup.
The game was preceded with riots from Algerian fans who broke into the stadium armed with white weapons, some of whom managed to get to the pitch and planted the Algerian flag before Sudanese authorities arrested them.
With this result, Egyptian fans will have to wait another four years to cheer for their team in the World Cup.
The last time Egypt participated was in 1990 in Italy.
