BONGANI MALUNGA
Zebras players’ hopes of testing themselves against one of the world’s best forwards, Mohammed Salah, have been dashed after the Egyptian football association announced that the player will not be involved in any national team activities during the international break.
Adel Amrouche’s side will face Egypt in an international friendly next week Monday in Cairo, the Pharaohs have decided to give Salah a chance to rest due “to the intensity of the European games” he has been participating in according to reports in Egypt.
As a regular starter for Liverpool, Salah has been involved in competitive domestic and European games every four or five days and the new Egypt coach has decided to give him a two week break to recover and be ready for the 2021 AFCON Qualifiers in November. Salah has previously been a thorn in flesh of the Botswana team in the past, he started at under 23 level as he provided an assist as the Egyptian under 23 team beat Botswana’s young guns 2-0 in the 2012 Olympics Qualifiers.
At senior level he scored against Zebras at the National Stadium as Egypt cruised to a comfortable 2-0 win during the 2015 AFCON Qualifiers. He has now developed into one of the most feared forwards in Europe given his near prolific scoring rate, facing him would have been yet another daunting task for the Zebras but it is a duel they would have relished.
Zebras will be aiming for their first ever win over Egypt when the sides clash, the Pharaohs have beaten the Zebras three times and drawn twice in five meetings. The only times Zebras prevented Egypt from winning was the famous 0-0 draw at the National Stadium in 2006 whereby Ernest Amos shut down Ahmed Mido and the 1-1 draw in a 2013 international friendly in which Jerome Ramatlhakwane scored.