Egypt midfield lynchpin Mohammed Elneny says the Black Stars of Ghana were more difficult to defeat in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier, as compared to the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The Pharaohs recorded a comfortable 2-0 victory over the Black Stars on matchday two of the 018 FIFA qualifiers at the Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria and also pipped Nigeria 1-0 courtesy of a 66th minute Ramadan Sobhi at the same venue.

“We played in a realistic way against Ghana,” Elneny told DMC Channel, as reported by Kingfut. The result was important for us, more important than the performance.

“Hector Cuper makes us play in a defensive way that makes it difficult for any team to score against us.

“In training, eight attackers go against three defenders, and they fail to score, so you can imagine what happens when we are six defenders in the match.

“In general, I think Ghana was stronger than Nigeria’s team which we faced in the Afcon qualifications.’

“Cuper guided Egypt to qualify to the Afcon and also, we are in a good position in the World Cup qualifications.

“The results are very good in my opinion.”

The Pharaohs of Egypt are favourites to qualify for the World Cup after amassing with six points from two games so far.