Egypt defeat Guinea 2-1 to reach Africa Cup of Nations

Egypt secured their place in the next year’s Africa Cup of Nations after beating Guinea 2-1 in the competition’s qualifiers in Morocco on Wednesday.

With one game left in the qualifiers, the Pharaohs lead Group D with 12 points, three ahead of second-placed Guinea, who are also on the verge of reaching the continental competition, as the first two teams in each group will qualify for the Nations Cup.

 Ethiopia and Malawi, who will face off in Ethiopia on Tuesday, are currently third and fourth in the group, respectively, with three points each.

Trabzonspor winger Mahmoud “Trezeguet” Hassan was the hero of the night, coming off the bench as an early substitute for Omar Marmoush to score and provide the second goal.

Trezeguet’s goal is the ninth for the Trabzonspor winger in his international career, which began in November 2014.

Serhou Guirassy opened the scoring for the hosts after a defensive lapse allowed him to score from close range following a naive error from the Pharaohs’ defense.

However, Trezeguet canceled out Guinea’s lead just before the break when he received a nice pass from Liverpool ace Mohamed Salah to go clear and score easily from close range.

In the second half, the hosts threatened the Pharaohs on three occasions, with Naby Keita’s close-range shot being collected by Egypt’s keeper, while Moriba Kourouma’s two shots went high over.

In the 70th minute, Trezeguet received a nice pass from Mohamed Salah before sending a powerful shot from the edge of the area that was denied by the Guinean keeper, who made a heroic save.

Nine minutes later, he fed Mostafa Mohamed inside the area, whose powerful shot defeated the keeper to add the second.

In the remaining minutes, the hosts pulled on the attack to level the score, but they failed, while Mohamed Salah squandered two easy chances to add the third for the Pharaohs.