The Egyptian national football team had a good start in the qualifications to the Africa Cup of Nations 2017, which will be held in Gabon. The Egyptian team won their first game in the seventh group against Tanzania 3-0.
The pharaohs needed a full hour to reach the competitor’s goal nets, when defender Ramy Rabia, who plays for Sporting Clube de Portugal, shook the Tanzanian nets with a head goal in the 60th minute of the match.
After that, Zamalek SC’s striker Bassem Morsy added the second goal, only three minutes after the first one, also with a header. This was before the current most famous Egyptian player, Mohamed Salah, who plays for Chelsea FC and has also played with Italian ACF Fiorentina, scored the third goal in the 68th minute, to be crowned with the title of the best player of the game, after he scored a goal and assisted in the two other goals.
The Egyptian team came at the top of their group, with three points, and a one goal difference from the Nigerian team, which defeated Chad’s team 2-0.
The teams that top their groups will directly qualify to the finals, and after that two second place teams within the 13 groups of the qualifications will be chosen. These groups will not include the group of the host country, which is the Gabon. Gabon is playing in the ninth group, which includes Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone.
The Pharaohs carry the record in terms of the number of times they have won the Africa Cup of Nations throughout the history of the championship. They won the cup seven times, three of which were consecutive in 2006, 2008, and 2010. However, ironically, after that historic achievement, they failed to qualify to the finals on three consecutive occasions, in 2012, 2013, and 2015.
The Argentinean Héctor Cúper took over the responsibility of managing the Egyptian team recently. The game against Tanzania is the first official game for Cúper with the team.
The 60-year-old Cúper has trained 13 teams before, the most famous of which were Internazionale and Valencia. The Argentine coach became the technical director of the Pharaohs team, after the failed experience of Egyptian Shawky Gharib in the qualifications to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015.
