AFCON
EGYPT TO FIELD FULL STRENGTH IN FRIENDLY MATCH WITH NIGERIA’S AFCON OPPONENTS, GUINEA
Egypt are likely to field an almost full-strength side when they meet Guinea this Sunday as they gear up for their opening African Cup of Nations game against Zimbabwe five days later in Cairo.
The Guineans potentially provide the strongest opposition for Nigeria in Group B. The Pharaohs were unconvincing in their previous warm-up despite recording a 1-0 victory over Tanzania at Alexandria’s Borg El-Arab Stadium, having struggled to make their dominance count against feeble opponents.
Coach Javier Aguirre gave chances to some new faces against Tanzania, including Zamalek’s central defender Mahmoud Alaa and Pyramids FC midfielder Nabil Emad.
But the regular players are expected to take part against Guinea, including Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah who were rested for the previous match.
“We won’t face Guinea with the same formation that was used against Tanzania,” Egypt’s assistant coach HanyRamzy told Time Sport TV channel late on Friday.
“We want to examine the 23 players so all of them will play and those who didn’t appear against Tanzania will be available against Guinea.
“We also could play with a new strategy like 4-4-2 or 3-4-3 to make the most of the friendly matches ahead of the tournament.”
In the absence of Salah, Aguirre relied on numerous crosses sent from both flanks.
The solitary goal Egypt scored came from a similar move when substitute Ahmed Mansour, who replaced left-back Ayman Ashraf in the second half, whipped in a cross to the far post that was headed home by right-back Ahmed Elmohamady.
Should Salah play against Guinea, the strategy could be altered so as to make the most of the forward’s pacy runs behind the defence. Under Aguirre’s predecessor Hector Cuper, Salah combined with veteran playmaker Abdallah El-Said to devastating effect.
“Salah is a great player and he is currently in the top rank alongside Messi and Ronaldo, but we also have other players who can be like him one day,” Egypt’s assistant coach Tito Garcia said.
“Five years ago Salah was not who he is today. Egypt have highly-skilled and young players and if they remained at the same level we could have other players like Salah.”
The record seven-time African champions face Zimbabwe at Cairo Stadium on Friday before meeting DR Congo and Uganda in Group A of the Nations Cup.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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