A Mohamed Salah penalty was enough to help 10-man Egypt secure their progression from African Cup of Nations (AFCON) group B with a 1-0 victory over South Africa in Agadir, ending Bafana Bafana’s 12-game unbeaten run (W6, D6).
Both teams came into this game knowing that a victory would see them advance to the knockout stages of the tournament, so it made sense that the opening moments of the game were a rather tense and cagey affair.
It took 22 minutes for the first shot of the game to come. It came in the form of a free-kick for Egypt on the edge of the penalty area, that Manchester City forward Omar Marmoush stepped up to take, but his effort went agonisingly wide of the left-post.
The first shot on target came the way of Bafana Bafana with just under half an hour on the clock, but Lyle Foster was unable to generate enough power on his shot to bother Mohamed El Shenawy, and the goalkeeper made a comfortable save.
The end of the first half saw Egypt take the lead despite the lack of goalscoring opportunities, courtesy of a penalty after a bad foul by Khuliso Mudau.
The Egyptian captain, Salah, was the man who took on the responsibility of the spot kick, and he managed to fire home the opener as he rifled his penalty down the centre of the goal.
There was more drama before half-time, though, as the Pharaohs were reduced to 10-men when Mohamed Hany was shown a second yellow card for a bad foul.
Following the restart, there was very little goalmouth action in the opening 25 minutes of the second half, with both sides struggling to craft any clear-cut opportunities. South Africa had more of the ball but were ultimately limited to efforts from distance that failed to test the Egyptian goalkeeper.
It took until 10 minutes before full-time for Bafana Bafana to have their best opportunity to draw level when Foster found Aubrey Modiba in the centre of the penalty area, but he was unable to put the ball either side of El Shenawy.
South Africa continued to huff and puff in the final moments, yet they were unable to find an equaliser. They will, however, head into their third game of the group stage knowing that destiny is in their own hands against Zimbabwe on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Pharaohs confirmed their place in the next round of AFCON but will need at least a point to guarantee that they progress as group winners.
