Egypt won its second victory in this CAN, defeating South Africa. The latter, however, is far from unworthy.
After its victory on Monday against Zimbabwe, Egypt met South Africa for its second group stage match. The first act is quite closed, with only three strikes on goal. But as the two teams prepared to return to the locker room with a score of 0-0, everything heated up.
The Pharaohs first received a highly contested penalty. Mohamed Salah was quick to open the scoring. But in the euphoria, the Egyptians saw their right side Mohamed Hany excluded in added time, just before the break.
The penalty whistled for Egypt.
This is very harsh for South Africans…
— Yacine Youssfi (@yacine_youssfi) December 26, 2025
The South Africans are fighting back
With their backs to the wall but with numerical superiority, South Africa unsurprisingly dominated the second half. 74% ball possession, 17 shots (including 5 on target): Hugo Broos’ men tried everything. But they came across an Egyptian goalkeeper in great shape.
The South Africans pushed until the end, hoping to get a penalty in added time, in vain. L’Egypt won 1-0 but showed some worrying flaws, which Rudi Garcia certainly took note of in view of the World Cup.
Despite their hectic match, the Pharaohs did the right thing by taking three points ahead of their direct opponent in first place. In the other match of the group, Angola and Botswana, the two teams beaten in their first meeting, shared (1-1).
