Salah makes the difference in Egypt’s fightback victory over Morocco, reports Jonathan Wilson.
Some emails. Thanks for reading, and keeping up with my own confusion at what was going on there. The answer there was not much and then lots of silliness.
Ramzi: “A wholehearted thank you for the utterly amusing and comprehensive summary of the game between Morocco and Egypt. I am genuinely glad that I tuned in to your coverage instead of even watching the game live, wouldn’t want to have missed it.”
Simon: “Surely when Trezeguet scores in extra time that’s the end of the match? At least if Euro 2000 is anything to go by...”
Peter Oh: “A penny - how much would that be in crypto currency? - for Jürgen Klopp’s thoughts on his star striker having played two gruelling extra-time knockout matches on the trot and advancing to the next round”
Ben: “Zamalek did not rate Sobhi... hence his exile to al-Ittihad... on permanent loan.”
Full-time: Egypt 2-1 Morocco
Egypt win what was a battle, though a slow-moving, attritional battle. Hakimi was not enough of a factor for Morocco and it was Mohamed Salah who took the stage and the game with his tap-in and superb run and cross to set up Trezeguet for the winner.
Updated
120+4 min: Salah subbed off at the end, oddly. There still might be a shootout....no, there won’t be. Egypt have done it and will face Cameroon.
120+2 min: Queiroz is booked at last, after two hours of agitation from the sidelines. Morocco win a cheap free-kick, and there’s a melee in the area with the Morocco goalie going up and Trezeguet going down on the floor. And then suddenly, from the free-kick, taken short, the ball breaks all the way and then, with no goalie to be seen, Salah can ‘t convert from a tight angle. Anarchy, chaos, disaster.
Updated
119 min: Pain etched on Egyptian faces. This has been tough going to watch, let alone to play in. Salah’s class has been the difference. Even the fighting was a bit half-hearted.
117 min: Sobhy, that third-choice goalie, gets his hands on the ball, and hangs on for dear life. Queiroz encourages him to get up and keep playing.
116 min: Salah wants another and cuts in to shoot when he might have been better served to keep the ball. The clock is ticking down slowly.
114 min: Morocco really need to try and test that third-choice goalie. So far, he’s hardly been near the ball.
112 min: El Haddadi is all bur in tears as he sits on the racetrack by the side of the pitch.
110 min: An Egypt change, on comes Stoke and Huddersfield legend, Sobhi. And off goes El-Haddadi for Morocco, and he looks exhausted.
109 min: Crypto ads aplenty on the sidelines here. It’s not top-level football without it.
108 min: Egypt seem to have control here, and Morocco seem tired by their defensive work in the second half.
106 min: Into the second half of extra time. Salah tries one of those chases down the wing but is then hauled back for offside.
105 min: Egypt want another and Mohamed whacks the ball long and out. What can Masina and Morocco rescue from this game? They will have fifteen minutes to do so. A yellow card for Abdelmonem and a free-kick for Morocco in the last knockings. Hakimi whacks over and that’s disappointing from him. Half-time in extra time.
102 min: That was the moment Salah had waited for, and he took it with the class we are all acquainted with. Egypt’s job is now to protect that third-choice goalie of theirs.
Goal! Egypt 2-1 Morocco (Trezeguet, 100)
It was all about Salah, as at last he finds space down the wing as he takes on three defenders, and then passes across goal and Trezeguet keeps his cool and slots in. Brilliant from Salah.
Updated
99 min: A glimmer of a chance as Salah looks to be in, only for the ref to penalise his challenge on Bono in the Moroccan goal. Salah still hasn’t found the service he was looking for.
97 min: Sobhy doesn’t look too secure as the ball is looped into the area and he misses it, only for a defender to clear. Poor Abou Gabal is in tears on the bench.
95 min: Finally, finally off goes Abou Gabal and on comes the third-choice goalie, Sobhy. Abou Gabal can hardly walk to the touchline.
93 min: The bright beginning of the start of the second half is not repeated. As the match ebbs towards penalties then there might be even less football played.
91 min: We are back underway. Egypt change, and it’s not the goalie and Ashraf goes off, and Alaa comes on.
Updated
Full-time: Egypt 1-1 Morocco
Bonus soccer it is, and there will be 30 more minutes. Perhaps some football might break out.
Updated
90+4 min: Salah attempts one of his long runs but Masina and Guerd come across to stop him.
90+2 min: Elneny concedes a corner, now can Morocco test Abou Gabal’s dodgy groin? Nope, Egypt get the ball clear.
Updated
90+1 min: Five minutes added on, and Abou Gabal still refuses to go off. Shades of Les Sealey at Wembley in 1991.
Updated
90 min: Into the last minute of normal time, though it’s been far from normal. Abou Gabal is down for the last time.
88 min: More waiting as Abou Gabal is strapped up and will continue with a defender taking his goal kicks.
86 min: Morocco changes - Louza on, Amallah off. Then Mmaee on, and En-Nesyri off. Salah is chatting behind his hand with Carlos Q.
85 min: The last ten minutes are the usual load of infringements and breaks in play. Morocco waste a chance to get the ball back into the area and Abou Gabal looks to be done. Egypt will be down to their third-choice goalie.
82 min: Abou Gabal hurt himself in that moment of heroism and there’s a further break in play.
81 min: Close, so close for Morocco! From a free-kick, the ball comes back in. Abou Gabal makes an amazing save from a header from Aguerd, who cannot believe it didn’t go in. It came back off the bar and back out. What a save.
80 min: El-Haddadi at it again, but having failed to get the referee booked he’s got Ashraf booked. Well done, mate.
78 min: El-Haddadi has, by some miracle, recovered from that brutal assault by the ref. Silly boy.
76 min: It goes off now, and the punches are going. Amusingly. El-Haddadi dives to the floor after the referee shoves him away from the melee.. It started with Hakimi legging up Mohamed and then everyone piling in. This is not football. This is nonsense. Hakimi is booked as is Mohamed, and the rest get away with it. Still no red card.
74 min: No actual football being played. Saiss and Abdelmonem Elsayed Mohamed Ahmed clash and there’s some playacting. The two benches continue to rave away at each other and the referee screams at Salah to calm down.
72 min: The fouls stacking up and a prediction is a second yellow is coming at some point. Meanwhile, there’s some consternation on the bench, as Abdel Wahed seems to be piling up bookable fouls and not getting a second yellow. Both sets of coaches are rowing with each other.
69 min: Clarification from our correspondent. One of them, at least.
To be clear: I know this happens at other tournaments. My point is that Caf is very good at focusing on the minutiae when there are far, far bigger issues on which it has been exposed in the post week.
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) January 30, 2022
Updated
68 min: Salah goes on a long and winding run and gets knocked over. No theatrics, he gets up and gets back on with it.
66 min: Moroccan sub, off goes Boufal the goalscorer and on comes Rahimi.
65 min: Dispatches from Yaoundé here.
Security now coming round the press box, removing labels from water-bottles if they're not from the official sponsor. Good to see Caf dealing with the big issues.
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) January 30, 2022
63 min: It’s getting bitty again, the foul count feels like it should be stratospheric. Aguerd heads over a decent chance from a set piece, and that could have been better for Morocco.
61 min: Better from Morocco, not so much pressure from Egypt...he speaks too soon as Roman Saiss stops Marmoush speeding through with a superbly judged tackle, taking the ball from the Egyptian just as he shaped to shoot.
Updated
59 min: Morocco gain some possession at last. Hakimi takes a whack, and they try to take it slow on the free-kick. Resting on the ball as Brendan Rodgers used to say. The rest doesn’t last long as the ball ends up back with Egypt soon enough.
57 min: Still all Egypt, and the likes of Boufal are seeing very little of the ball at the other end.
55 min: Egypt fancy another, as Mohamed tees up Salah and then Trezeguet has the ball whipped from him just as he is ready to shoot.
Goal! Egypt 1-1 Morocco (Salah, 53)
One chance, one goal. Bounou makes a fine save from Mohamed and the ball squirts to Salah who has read the ball and slots it home. It had been coming from the first kick of the second half.
Egypt captain Mohamed Salah celebrates scoring the equaliser. Photograph: Shaun Roy/EPA
Updated
51 min: More Egypt pressure, more deep-lying Moroccan defence. That seems set to be the pattern of this match until a goal comes.
49 min: Trezeguet and Salah link after a weaving run from the Liverpool man, and Trezeguet unleashes a shot. Much better from Egypt.
47 min: Salah in the middle as Egypt build up a head of steam. Morocco rocking back on their heels against that added attacking impetus.
46 min: The second half is underway. Mo Salah took to the field while having a long chat with the referee. Hegazy couldn’t continue and Trezeguet, of Aston Villa, comes on in a reshuffle, and goes to the left side of attack.
Updated
Half-time transfer news.
Tom Hopkins emails in: “Your point about wasting a goal scorer on set pieces reminded me of the perverse pleasure of Harry Kane taking corners at the Euros before England became, you know, quite good. Good luck Watford fans!”
Half-time: Egypt 0-1 Morocco
The only moment of class was the Hakimi surge that forced the penalty and the coolness of Boufal, the one-time Saint now Angers man, as he scored. Egypt have been rotten, and Salah peripheral. The main action has been the earache the referee has received from both teams.
45 min: Hegazy is being worked on off the field. The players on the field are still arguing with the referee as Egypt prepare a sub. Two minutes added on.
43 min: Long whack forward from Masina, to nobody and that’s about the limit of ambition for Morocco. Elneny steps back to clear some danger. On the sideline, Hegazy, the West Brom legend, goes down with what looked like groin injury. It doesn’t look good. And he screamed out, though there’s been a bit of that from both teams.
41 min: Somehow Ashraf, guilty of the foul for the penalty, escapes a yellow for a studs-up job. He thanks the referee most gratefully.
39 min: It’s difficult to describe just how bad this game has become. But it’s bad, very bad. And both teams happy for that to be the level. Derby games are often like that.
Updated
37 min: To say this game is stop-start would be an understatement. Like being on the District Line out to Dagenham.
35 min: Amrabat sets off on a long run but gets tackled, and at the other end Masina steps in to stop the danger. This is still poor stuff from Egypt, who can’t put any passes together.
34 min: Nonsensical rolling around after a foul from Amallah on Abdel Wahed, and there’s the Moroccans’ first booking.
32 min: Free-kick in a dangerous position and Hakimi will hit it. Like everything in this game, it takes an age to happen. Two minutes of hanging around and he smashes it well wide.
30 min: Morocco carry it forward for the first time in a while. Boufal tries to tempt Wahed into a foul. Then Elneny is penalised for a foul. The Egypt players are surrounding the ref and Salah is called over to tell his teammates to behave.
Updated
27 min: Egypt now enjoying far more of the ball but are not playing at all well.
25 min: First booking as Egypt’s Abdel Wahed is penalised for a cruncher in the centre of the park. What you might call a tactical foul, and Queiroz is not very happy with that.
24 min: Masina whacks into Salah, and there’s another free-kick. Guess who takes it? Yes, though this time it results in Bounou having to make a save when the ball comes back out.
22 min: An Egypt counter is on but Mohamed overplays the ball and Salah runs into heavy traffic, with no chance to show off his wizardry.
20 min: Good save from Bounou from a Marmoush shot from distance. Right height, as they say but decent, alert keeping from the Moroccan keeper.
18 min: Salah again over a free-kick, from distance. It comes off the wall and behind but Queiroz is unimpressed on the touchline. Even less so when Salah makes a mess of the corner. Again, why is taking them?
17 min: An Egypt pass out to the right is beyond Ashraf and there’s a lot of arguing going on between the Egypt players. All is not well at all.
15 min: There’s a man down for Egypt, and it’s El Soleya, one of their star men, who got on the end of one of those Moroccan crunching tackles.
13 min: Carlos Queiroz and the referee get involved in a sideline discussion. Egypt seem to be distracted by something, they are way off the pace.
12 min: Boufal again involved as he runs forward, and he has a shot blocked for a corner. Plenty of jostling in the box but Egypt hold firm.
10 min: Salah takes an Egypt corner as they try to find a way back into this game. It’s cleared with a little bit of difficulty. Then Salah takes a free-kick from distance with the same result. It seems a waste to have the world’s best finisher on set pieces.
8 min: The ball has been barely in play, and yet we have had a goal and a possible shock on our hands. Egypt have been poor.
Goal! Egypt 0-1 Morocco (Boufal, 7)
It takes almost as long to take the penalty, but Boufal keeps his cool and sends Abou Gabal the wrong way. Nerveless stuff.
Updated
Penalty to Morocco!
4 min: There’s an early penalty claim, and that’s plumb. The VAR is called in, Ashraf has clearly fouled Hakimi as he galloped to the byline. It takes an age for the referee to be called over to see it. About 90 seconds in fact.
Updated
1 min: We are go in Yaoundé and the airhorns are seeing some serious use already. Early touch for Southampton’s Boufal, who has such a key role for Morocco.
Morocco made two changes from the 11 that began the 2-1 win over Malawi as Aymane Barkok replaces Imran Louza and Munir El Haddadi comes in for Ayoub Elkaabi.
Egypt also made two changes. Mohamed Abo Gabal replaces goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy and Ayman Ashraf is in for Hamdi Fathi.
The players are lined up as they hear the national anthem of Egypt and the cameras go close to them as they sing. Looks like Mo Salah is miming. Instead, his eyes dart around with extreme focus. The Moroccan anthem’s performance is a bit more subdued though hands are clasped to chests.
The social media readout of those teams.
The 11 Pharaohs that will take on Morocco! 🇪🇬🇲🇦
— Egypt National Football Team (@ThePharaohs_) January 30, 2022
Kick-off is at 17.00 Egypt time.🙏🇪🇬#ThePharaohs #Pharaohs 🇪🇬 #AFCON2021 #TeamEgypt pic.twitter.com/kZuVJEbsLK
📋 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 🦁 to face Egypt!#DimaMaghrib 🇲🇦 #AtlasLions #TeamMorocco #AFCON2021 pic.twitter.com/dy9OjsTX5h
— Équipe du Maroc (@EnMaroc) January 30, 2022
The excellent Nick Ames reported on Cameroon’s win yesterday, and they will face the winner of this match in the final.
Along the road that skirts Japoma Stadium’s western side, soldiers bearing rifles stood on roofs or stared down from balconies. They were members of the Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide (BIR), a feared combat unit that reports directly to the president, Paul Biya, and has been the subject of torture allegations in the past. As fans queued to pass through the turnstiles, which were allowed to open five hours before kick-off to ease pressure on access points, they were man-marked by red-capped gendarmes. The heavy-handedness of the spectacle was deliberate and the visual message clear: nobody would be allowed to take chances in gaining entry.
Jonathan Wilson’s Observer column centres on the tragedy that has overshadowed this tournament, and the place of it within the world game.
That may, in time, lead to World Cup-style efficiencies, but it must also be a serious concern. Caf should exist to run and promote African football, not as a voting bloc to support Infantino and his schemes. Infantino was at the Council of Europe this past week, explaining the “need to find ways to include the whole world to give hope to Africans so that they don’t need to cross the Mediterranean in order to find maybe a better life but, more probably, death in the sea”.
Starting line-ups
Egypt: Abou Gabal Ali, Abdel Wahed, Abdelmonem Elsayed, Mohamed Ahmed, Hegazy, Mohamed, Ashraf, Elneny, El Soleya, Salah, Ahmed Abdallah, Marmoush
Morocco: Bounou, Hakimi, Aguerd, Saiss, Masina, S Amrabat, Barkok, Amallah, El Haddadi, Boufal, En-Nesyri
The game is just an hour away. Teams to follow.
Enthusiasm level = 💯#TeamEgypt 🆚 #TeamMorocco #TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 | #AFCON2021 | #EGYMAR pic.twitter.com/VHeyMBmWrR
— #TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 🏆 (@CAF_Online) January 30, 2022
Preamble
This is a big one, between the two North African giants remaining in the tournament after Tunisia exited on Saturday. Egypt required penalties to get past Ivory Coast in the last 16 while Morocco had to come from behind to beat Malawi. Like most teams in the tournament, we are yet to see the best of either teams; it’s often been tough going out in Cameroon. Both teams have been strong in defence. Morocco have found goals easier to come by than Egypt, despite the presence of Mohamed Salah.
Yaoundé awaits. And in the semi-final, so do Cameroon, the host nation.
