AFCON
Guinea Bissau match is one big chance for Egypt to revive eighth title hopes
After their bruised ego in their opening Group D match in which they were lucky to be beaten by just one goal by a more adventurous Nigerian side, Egypt will hope to regain their esteem facing the least rated side of Group B, Guinea Bissau.
The latter who missed a late penalty in their goalless draw with Sudan will be ruing the miss as they know they have a huge mountain to climb facing one of Africa’s most formidable team.
Both teams will play at the Roumde Adjia Stadium in Garoua after the Nigeria versus Sudan encounter. The game holds at 19:00 GMT.
For Guinea Bissau, this may just be the biggest game ever. They have never faced Egypt before, making the Saturday match a special encounter for the team that is participating in the tournament for the third time in a row.
After they missed the opportunity to beat Sudan and share the top spot, Guinea-Bissau seeks to create a historic surprise and beat record holders Egypt to enhance their chances of reaching the next round.
Their Assistant coach, Emiliano Te is optimistic that Guinea Bissau can scrape at least a point from this match.
“We are working to develop ourselves, and we have started training and preparing for the Egypt match. They have strong players and a cohesive team, and we have experienced players who want to win.
“We have a lot of absences, but we will deal with it. Mohamed Salah is one of the best players in the world, and Egypt has more than one professional player. We will face all of them, not just Salah.”
His determination is shared by midfielder, Frederic Mendy . “We are well prepared and know what we have at stake. We will face Egypt strongly and work to maintain our chances of qualifying.
“Missing a penalty is not a problem, and we missed many chances against Sudan. We will not stop there because we want to represent our country well, and we did not discuss much about wasting the penalty kick.”
But the Egyptians are not just lying low and taking things for granted. They are seeking an important victory over Guinea-Bissau on Saturday in order to achieve their first three points that revive their hopes in the tournament.
Their loss as well as poor performance in Tuesday match against Nigeria angered many supporters of the Egyptian team.
Led by the English Premier League stars Mohamed Salah, Mohamed Elneny and Mahmoud Hassan “Trezeguet”, the Pharaohs will be the favorites to win on Saturday and restore hope of completing the campaign for the eighth title in their history.
Their Portuguese coach, Carlos Queiroz attaches great importance to the match. Hear him: “Every match is important, and tomorrow (Saturday) we will try to improve our performance.
“We will face a good team and of course we respect them a lot because everyone is improving. We want to play a different game, and I have confidence in my players who played last game.
“Mohamed Salah is a player in our team, we win or lose together, and we all share the responsibility. For me the most important is the team and I promise to see a different performance in the second match.”
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.
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