FOOTBALL – Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in yesterday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Centre back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semi-final meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Earlier, strikers Victor Osimhen and Akor Adams grabbed second-half goals as Nigeria powered to a deserved 2-0 victory over Algeria to set up a meeting with hosts Morocco in the last four.
Osimhen steered home a long cross from the left by Bruno Onyemaechi two minutes into the second half as Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane made a bizarre jump to try and stop the effort but ended up getting his angles wrong and conceding an easy goal.
Adams increased Nigeria’s lead 10 minutes later as Osimhen unselfishly fed him the ball and he took it round Zidane before placing it into an empty net.
It was an impressive performance by Nigeria, who two months ago missed out on World Cup qualification, as they overwhelmed their opponents from the start at the Grand Stade de Marrakech, looking more determined, quicker around the field and stronger in the challenges, and denying their opponents a single scoring chance.
&uuid=(email))