African Cup of Nations – Zaki sets up Elephants clash

Eurosport – Mon, 04 Feb 21:02:00 2008

Amr Zaki’s goal gave Egypt a 2-1 African Cup of Nations quarter-final win over Angola to set up a semi-final tie with Ivory Coast.

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Manucho’s spectacular long-range strike equalised Hosni Abd Rabou’s penalty, but Zaki’s chested effort minutes before half-time eventually proved enough for Egypt.

The defending champions had the best of a cagey opening 20 minutes, but the best they had to show for their efforts was a long-range Mohamed Shawky effort that was straight at Angola goal-keeper Lama and a dangerous right-wing cross from Ahmed Fathi that Emad Moteab missed by inches.

Hassan Shehata’s men enjoyed large spells of possession, and after 22 minutes they made their dominance count.

Andre was penalised for handling Mohamed Aboutrika’s free-kick inside the area, and Abd Rabou calmly swept the resulting penalty into the bottom-left corner.

Angola weren’t really posing any kind of attacking threat, but just four minutes later they drew level when Manucho ripped a stunning left-footed strike past Essam Al Hadari from 30 yards.

Egypt were surprised by the equaliser, but they re-took the lead in fortuitous circumstances when Fathi’s wicked right wing cross hit the advancing Zaki on the chest at the back post and flew past Lama.

Angola almost drew level after 15 seconds of the second period, but after latching onto Flavio’s flick-on Manucho jabbed the ball just wide of Al Hadari’s left-hand post.

The game then entered another cautious spell that lasted until just after the hour mark, when Manucho drew a sharp save from Al Hadari with a low left-footed shot before Lama had to rush from his line to deny Moteab at the other end.

Egypt continued to press forward, and Lama was forced to repel well-struck efforts from Moteab, Fathi and substitute Ahmed Hassan.

It wasn’t until injury time that Angola began to put their opponents under any real pressure, but Egypt held firm to ensure their progress to the semi-finals.