Egypt qualify for the semi-finals

Kumasi, Feb. 4, GNA - The Pharaohs of Egypt beat their Angolan counterparts 2-1 in the quarter-final match of the on-going African Cup of Nations (CAN), 2008 encounter at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium Monday evening.

The defending champions, who beat Cameroon 4-2 in the opening match of the competition and followed it up with an emphatic 3-0 victory over the Sudanese and went on to draw 1-1 with Zambia have, therefore, qualified to meet Cote D'Ivoire in the semi-final stage of the competition at the same venue on Thursday.

The Egyptians who displayed total dominance over the Angolans scored first through a spot kick, which was taken by Hosny Aboudrabou Abdel Moteleb in the 22nd minute after slippery Mohamed Aboutrika was fouled in the penalty box.

The Angolans accepted the challenge and also had a similar chance just outside the penalty box in the 24th minute, but when Mulenessa Norberto took a free kick and similar offence of a handball was committed, the Japanese referee, Nichimura Yuichi overlooked it. The next host of the African Cup of Nations, who seemed undaunted, continued to probe for the equalizer and this rightly came their way in the 27th minute when Alberto Mateus's long range left footer outside the box caught Egypt's goalie Esam Kamal Tawfil El Hadary pants down. Two minutes later the Angolans had a free kick a few metres away from the penalty box but the impregnable defence of the Egyptians warded off Norberto's shot.

In the 38th minute, the Egyptians mounted an attack and Ahmed Fathy Abdel Meneim Ibrahim capitalized on a lose ball and sent in a powerful cross which hit Amr Hasan Zaky Mansour and was deflected into the net for the second goal to end the first half.

On resumption of the second half, both teams improved on their performance but it was the Egyptians, who were on top of proceedings as they countered with swift inter positional passes and close range shots but goalkeeper Joao Luis of Angola denied them of any more goals. The attack of the Angolans led by Mateus and Flavio made series of incursions into the vital area of the Egyptians but their attempts at goal were frustrated by the strong defence of the Egyptians who remained resolute until the end of the match.

Honsy Abdel Moteleb of Egypt and Alberto Mateus of Angola were awarded MTN Man of the Match and Samsung Fair-play awards, respectively.