January 16, (THEWILL) -In the Matchday two fixture of Group D on Saturday, Mohamed Salah scored the game’s only goal to earn Egypt a much-needed TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations victory over Guinea-Bissau at the Roumde Adjia Stadium.
The Liverpool forward earned his team their first points of the tournament with a beautiful volley midway through the second half.
Late in the game, the Pharaohs breathed a sigh of relief as Mama Balde’s apparent equaliser was ruled out following a lengthy VAR check for a foul by the goalscorer on Omar Kamal.
Salah initially struggled to make an impact in Egypt’s opening defeat to Nigeria after being moved to play from the middle, but the 29-year-old was back in his preferred position on the right side here and showed that it could pay off as early as the second minute when he received the ball in space before cutting inside and shooting against the near post.
Guinea-Bissau’s Fali Cande fired a free-kick over the bar after 11 minutes, before Egypt struck the same area of the same post again when Mostafa Mohamed’s shot deflected off the woodwork after a wonderful move including Salah, Omar Marmoush, and Mostafa Mohamed.
In the second half, Egypt head coach Carlos Quieroz made changes to his team, including moving Salah back into the middle. This time around, it paid off when a clipped ball into the box from Amr El Soleya found Salah, whose left-footed volley squirmed under Guinea-Bissau goalkeeper Jonas Mendes in the 69th minute.
Quieroz’s men hit the post for the third time through Zizo, before Balde broke away from Kamal and fired a fantastic effort into the far right corner, but the goal was disallowed due to a foul on the defender.
There were no further goals in the game before the final whistle meaning that with one game remaining Egypt climbed up to second place in Group D on three points behind group leaders Nigeria with a perfect six points from two matches and guaranteed a spot in the knockout stages after defeating Sudan 3-1 earlier.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
