Morocco, Egypt in Futsal Cup final tie
Laayoune, Morocco. The hosts Morocco and Egypt today meet in the Africa Futsal Cup of Nations final match to be held at the Hizam Stadium.
Already the two teams have qualified for the Fifa Futsal World Cup to be held in Lithuania from September 12 to October 4, featuring 24 teams. Argentina is the defending champions.
As Morocco target the second title, Egypt eye the fourth championship in the history of the competition. The match will start from 11pm Tanzania time.
Egypt will possibly take the final match as a revenge after they lost 3-2 in the previous edition held in South Africa in 2016.
Morocco qualified for the final after overwhelming Angola with a 4-0 win in a thrilling encounter. Two goals scored by Achraf Mohamed Saoud were enough for the host team to book their place at the final.
Saoud scored in the seventh following a good pass from Abdelatif Fati. Jouad scored the second three minutes before half time following a good pass from Anas El Ayyane.
Angola played well in the encounter as they missed clear scoring chances in the second half.
The good combination between Joao Cambangula and Antonio Cassimo forced Morocco to intensify their marking as they managed to prevent Angola from scoring. The Moroccans celebrated the fourth goal through Hamza Bouyouzan.
Egypt qualified for the final after defeating Libya 5-2 at the Hizam Stadium. The match was thrilling as the Pharaohs were the first to score in the third through Abdelahman Mohamed after he was made clear by Ibrahim Ayed. Libyan took the command of the game and Hamadi Alshawain missed a clear scoring chance in the 13th as his shot went wide few inches from the goal post.
The Egyptians appeared to relax and allowed the Libyans to dominate the encounter while wasting a number of scoring chances. Mohammed Suleiman Ghaeb levelled in the 20th following a good combination with Fadel Sleik.
However, the Egyptians started the second half with a bang and scored the second goal in the 23rd through Mostafa Khalaf after a good coordination with Ahmed Mohammed. Khalaf also scored the third with a long range just outside the danger zone in the 38th.
The Libyans reduced the gap through Mohammed Gharib through a free kick before Tarek Hassan made it four and Ahmed Mohammed scored the fifth during the injury time.
Morocco head coach Hicham Dguig says they will not allow Egypty to take the trophy away from their soil. Dguig explained that he expects a tough game, but said they know how to counter their opponents.
“We are ready for the battle, my players have been trained to win and we hope to maintain the status in the encounter, but we hope there will be a lot of pressure too,” said Dguig.
Egypty’s head coach Hesham Hussein Saleh said although they have already quailed for the World Cup, but winning the trophy will be sweet to them.
“I am happy with the “all Arabs final”, we have a huge task here, revenging and taking the trophy to its origin, we have to stretch our muscles to win against the hosts,” said Saleh.
Before the encounter, Angola will face Libya in a third play off. The winner of the match will secure a ticket to feature in the Fifa Futsal World Cup too. The match will start from 7.30pm Tanzania time.
