Ivory Coast’s meeting with Egypt on Wednesday may only be the last 16, but it is a game that has a climactic feel. It is 14 years since they last met competitively, but memories of that game remain fresh. The image of Amr Zaki turning sharply in the box in that Cup of Nations semi-final, sending Kolo Touré running in the wrong direction as he powered by to score stands as the defining one of Egypt’s period of dominance when they won three Cups of Nations in a row under Hassan Shehata.
Egypt won 4-1, a crushing victory over the Ivorian golden generation. That was a brilliant side, defensively ruthless with creative midfielders – Ahmed Hassan, Mohamed Aboutreika, Osama Hosny – and in each tournament a striker who hit form at the right time. They were also mentally tough: victory in Ghana in 2008 was the first time a north African side had won a Cup of Nations in sub-Saharan Africa, a feat they repeated in Angola two years later.
The present squad have the best player Egypt has produced, one of the best players in the world, in Mohamed Salah, but it has nothing like the same depth of quality. Progress through World Cup qualifying – they face Senegal in a play-off in March – has been functional. Away from home, playing on the break, they were able to open up a little, but four goals scored in three home games felt underwhelming, as did Carlos Queiroz’s reluctance to be bullish about Egypt’s chances at the Cup of Nations. From his days coaching Portugal’s youth sides 30 years ago, Queiroz has favoured a cautious, possession-driven approach.
That hasn’t changed in Cameroon. Egypt had the sixth-most possession in the group stage but only the 11th-most shots. Every game finished 1-0 – a defeat to Nigeria and wins over Guinea-Bissau and Sudan – a plodding qualification that has only increased the criticism of Queiroz, who has started to demonstrate frustration, dismissing a “kick the ball forward, kick the ball forward” approach.
For him the biggest problem has not been the general play but the finishing, despite the presence not only of Salah but also of Omar Marmoush of Stuttgart and Mostafa Mohamed of Galatasaray.
“Look, I promise you they are going to be doing finishing exercises from the morning until the afternoon,” Queiroz said after the win over Sudan. “They just need to score more goals. To only play good football is not enough – we need to build up more goals and with that be more relaxed in the game. We always have intention to score and it only takes one small mistake, one rebound, and something can happen.”
That Mohamed El-Shenawy was named best goalkeeper of the first phase is a double-edged compliment. Yes, he has been impressive, but in that group Egypt would have hoped he did not need to be. Certainly Egypt’s goalkeeping situation is a lot less complicated than Ivory Coast’s. Having lost their first-choice Sylvain Gbohouo, when he failed a doping test in the week before the tournament (Ivory Coast have said he was prescribed medication by a doctor), their second-choice, Badra Ali Sangaré, suffered the death of his father the morning after the second group game, when he had donated Sierra Leone an equaliser as his knee plugged in the dreadful Douala pitch.
Sangaré insisted on playing in the final group game, though, and excelled in the 3-1 win over the reigning champions, Algeria, in the final group game in by far Ivory Coast’s best performance in the competition. With Arsenal’s Nicolas Pépé excelling on the right of a fluid front three, the Ivorian trio of Jean Michaël Seri, Franck Kessié and Ibrahim Sangaré dominated against a midfield that capitulated for a crucial period just after half-time.
That was a surprising failing from the African champions – if one they had also suffered late on against Equatorial Guinea – and it is hard to imagine a Queiroz side collapsing in the same way. “The game will be a tactical one,” said the Ivory Coast manager, Patrice Beaumelle, “and we have a plan to stop the danger our opponent poses.”
With Egypt offering little in the way of creativity that has essentially meant stopping Salah. But stopping Egypt has rarely been the problem for opponents; the problem is being stopped by them. If Ivory Coast’s midfield can impose themselves as they did against Algeria, there should be chances again for Pépé, Sébastien Haller and Max Gradel. If not, the likelihood is for a tight, tense game that will be settled by one of Queiroz’s small mistakes or rebounds.
That may not be how Egypt fans want to play, but it is how Queiroz has always done it.
