Egypt laboured to an unconvincing 1-0 win against last Group C’s last placed Rwanda in Kigali.
The Pharaohs were missing a number of their top players including Zaki, Mido and Zidan. A further set back occurred when star man Abou-Trika was injured in the warm up and was dropped to the bench.
Despite being given permission by Egypt’s Grand Mufto Ali Gomaa to break fasting for the game the Egyptian players refused.
These conditions obviously did not help the Egyptians and without any of their top strikers they lacked a cutting edge in the first half, it seemed they were content to bore the opposition into a mistake.
The side Egypt had beaten 3-0 before the summer break stood strong, although admittedly they were not asked too many difficult questions by the visitors. In the end it was a rather scrappy goal mouth scramble that the Pharaohs profited from and were thankful for their veteran captain Ahmed Hassan who put the chance away.
The victory kept alive Egypt’s slim chances of World Cup qualification alive. The crunch match will now take place on the 14th November when Egypt take on Algeria at home, that’s if they can find some form away from home to beat Zambia on the 10th October.
