Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Egypt Into U-23 AFCON Semis After Beating Ghana (3-2)


Mon 11 Nov 2019 | 10:31 PM
Mohamed Helba

Egypt's U-23 national team fought back to snatch a 3-2 hard-fought victory over Ghana to qualify for the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) last four on Monday.

The Black Stars started the game so fiercely as early as after only six minutes when Yaw Yeboah received an excellent cross with a powerful shot, putting his side ahead.

Striker Mostafa Mohamed netted the equalizer in the 17th minute when he met Aboul Fotouh's cross with a powerful header, planting the ball into the Black Stars' net.

Ramadan Soubhi came close to put the Pharaohs ahead after he unleashed a powerful shot, which was denied by Ghana's keeper in the 42nd minute.

[caption id="attachment_90400" align="aligncenter" width="1202"]Mostafa Mohamed and Ramadan Soubhi are delivering an outstanding performance Mostafa Mohamed and Ramadan Soubhi are delivering an outstanding performance at U-23 AFCON[/caption]

Obiang made use of the silly mistake by the Pharaohs' defender, scoring the second goal for the Black Stars to give them the lead once again in the 46th minute.

Ramadan Soubhi equalized the scoring in the 82nd minute, rocking Cairo International Stadium when he followed up Abdelrahman Magdy's powerful shot, which was denied by the keeper, but the ball found Soubhi, whose shot hit the net.

Substitute Ahmed Yasser Rayan stunned the Black Stars in the 87th minute when he sealed the victory. Rayan netted the third goal through an outstanding header after receiving an excellent cross from Soubhi.

Egypt now rank first with six points followed by Cameroon, who came in the second spot with four points. While Ghana rank third with only one point and Mali came in the last spot with zero points.

The eight national teams participating in this tournament are set to play all their clashes at Cairo International Stadium and Al Salam Stadium.

The top three positions at the tournament will qualify automatically to represent Africa at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The tournament came after Egypt dazzled the world when it hosted the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.