Egypt – Zambia: wear your bullet proof vests!!

Place: cairo stadium
Time: 7:30 pm CLT
What: Egypt – Zambia
Why: because we need to go to the world cup after more than 20 years absence and following 2 successive African cup titles

You may think that our game against the Chipolopolo (copper bullets) – what a hell of a name– is going to be a stroll in the park but we should have learned our lessons by now when we underestimated opponents then we were struck by shocking results….cough cough Malawi, Sudan cough…. And we had to play under extreme pressure to save our reputation.

But against this Zambian team we have our reasons to take the game seriously; remember that they were the only team we failed to beat during the African cup in 2008 and they topped their group in the previous stage ahead of Togo and of course our history with them had its down moments.

However, we shouldn’t forget that we are playing at home in front of a packed Cairo stadium – hopefully- and that we need this world cup more than another 10 African cups because if we don’t qualify with these players we will never qualify; we also shouldn’t forget that we are a good team, arguably the best in Africa, and With all these motivations, the players has no reason to disappoint.

Giving the importance of the game, the team held a successful preparation camp in Alexandria and news coming from the camp said that there is a sense of responsibility and enthusiasm among players to win this match; also statements coming from Hassan Shehata reflected respect to the opponent and determination to win the game.

With no injuries and with all support the players can get, we only need to put the ball in the goal

Before we start anything, here is some information about Zambia (please watch till the end)

Zambia

Finishing third at the inaugural Championship of African Nations for local players in the Ivory Coast earlier this month, many of the Zambian team players are enjoying a high moral and won’t lack confidence for their encounter against African champions.

This was reflected in their coach’s, Herve Renard, statements before the game.

“It would be a difficult to win in Egypt, of course, it will not be easy to win in Cairo because even Cameroon and Nigeria find it difficult to win in Cairo, so even for us it will be very difficult but we need to be confident, and then, may be, we can win or why go there?” he said.
But he later said that his team is going to Cairo to get the 3 points!!!

Mainly, the Zambian team is a mix of local players and professional players in South Africa and lower divisions in Europe.

Their most significant players include: Chris Katongo (Arminia Bielefeld, Germany), Felix Katongo (Chateauroux, France), and Jacob Mulenga (Chateauroux, France).

Some videos for the Zambian team:

Egypt

El 7amdulelah, there are no injuries in the team; even El Hadary who had a muscular problem is now fine and can participate in the match. This gives Shehata a wide variety of options he can choose from in all field positions and allows him flexibility in putting the strategy for the game.

Let’s start by the attack line; since Shehata prefer Meteb he will be paired with one of Mido or Zaki and behind them either Abu Treika or Zidan based on their form or he may put Zidan and Treika with one striker, in that case it will be Amr Zaki; Mido can be given a chance in the second half.

In midfield, most probably Hosni and Shawky will be put in the line up while Ahmed Hassan will be used as the right wing and Barakat as the left wing with extra attacking tasks in Zambia’s midfield

In defense, Wael Gomaa and Ahmed Fathi will be man marking Zambia’s striker while Hani Said will be allowed to move forward in midfield to increase the pressure on the Zambian team.

It should be noted that players chosen for this game are the same from Ghana 2008 with little exceptions so harmony between players won’t be absent.

Here is what the players said about the game:

The match

As usual, we will start with huge pressure in an attempt to score an early goal; Zambia, on the other side, will do as Kenya did putting 9 players in defense and a sole player in attack with high reliance on counter attacks.

In front of this defensive pile, concentrating o both sides of the field will be essential especially when we have strikers who can deal well with crosses like Zaki and Mido.

Zambia’s goalkeeper will be a weak point as far as I remember him from the past 2 African cups so we will have to try shooting from distance by Ahmed Hassan and Hosni Abd Raboh; dribbling in small areas by Mohamed Zidan maybe one of the solutions also.

Finally, we have to earn our lessons from Ghana’s game when we wasted a lot of easy chances and we ended up 2-2 while we could have won 4-0 at ease.

Probable line-up

Egypt:

……………………….…El Hadary………………
Ahmed Hassan…..Wael Gomaa….Hani said….Ahmed Fathi….Mohamed Barakat
……….Mohamed Shawky…………Hosni Abd Raboh
……………………….Abu Treika/ Zidan…………………
……………Meteb……………………………Zaki………..

Zambia: Mweene – Mbola, Joseph Musonda, Dennis Banda, Lungu – Isaac Chansa, Rainford Kalaba, Felix Katongo, Fwayo Tembo – Chris Katongo, Singuluma.

Prediction: 2-0 Zaki, Ahmed Hassan

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