Egypt earned a hard fought 1-0 victory over Botswana in Hossam El-Badry’s debut match as the Pharoahs new Football manager.
El-Badry’s side started the match strong, pressuring Botswana into their own midfield with the visitors unable to build a convincing attacking strategy and only hoping to weather the Egyptian attacks.
Egypt’s first major chance came in the 7th minute after Abdallah El-Sayeed crossed a corner which found it’s way barely missing Ahmed Hegazy’s head.
The second major chance came in the 14th minute after Ahmed Hassan Kouka fired a shot outside the box, with the Botswanian goalkeeper making the save.
Hussein El-Shahat missed a major opportunity 10 minutes away from the end of the match after a good tactical play with El-Sayeed, but shot it wide.
Egypt made their first substitution in the 53rd minute when defensive midfielder Hamdy Fathi was introduced, replacing Mohamed Elneny. Three minutes later came the second substitution for Egypt as playmaker Mohamed Magdy Afsha replacing Abdalla El-Saied.
In the 60th minute the phenomenal Ahmed Fathi raced through the sides and handed the ball to Kouka who missed narrowly.
Egypt then scored the first goal of the match in the 74th minute after Fathi, who received a perfect pass from teammate Mahmoud Alaa, scored his first international goal in his first ever appearance with the national team.
From then on the game opened up as Egypt was ambitious to double their scoring, while underdogs Botswana tried desperately to equal the scores.
El-Badry, who took over last month following the firing of Mexican Javier Aguirre, called up 23 players for this friendly, including four foreign-based players for the match.
The four players are Mahmoud 'Trezeguet' Hassan (Aston Villa), Ahmed 'Kouka' Hassan (SC Braga), Mohamed Elneny (Besiktas) and Ahmed Hegazi (West Bromwich).
The former Ahly manager dropped Liverpool's star Mohamed Salah from his list, opting to give his number one star some much needed rest.
He also explained his decision to drop the Egypt U23 duo Ramadan Sobhi and Moustafa Mohamed, saying he wishes to let the two players focus on the U23 team, which is also preparing for the Olympics qualifiers scheduled on November.
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