By beating Uganda in Cairo to progress into the last 16 as Group A winners, Egypt retained its ideal beginning to its Africa Cup of Nations campaign. With a fantastic free-kick halfway through the first half, Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah opened the scoring.
Then Ahmed Elmohamady of Aston Villa increased the lead of the Pharaohs with a strong drive before half-time. In Group A’s other match on Sunday, DR Congo thumped Zimbabwe, implying Uganda’s advancement as runners-up.
Host Egypt is going through the last 16 with a perfect record beating Zimbabwe and DR Congo in their two group matches opening. Also, at this year’s Afcon, the seven-time winners still have to concede a objective, but they ran their luck against Uganda, who was left to regret a string of missed opportunities.
Uganda’s Farouk Miya and Emmanuel Okwi, both of whom met at the Cairo International Stadium, tried Mohamed El-Shenawy, an Egyptian keeper before Salah broke the deadlock with a side shot on goal.
And Cranes forward Lumala Abdu was rejected twice in rapid succession by El-Shenawy before Egypt’s captain Elmohamady netted his second tournament objective with a good finish from the half-time cut-back by Ayman Ashraf.
In the second quarter, Uganda continued to apply pressure, and Miya twice came close with brushed free-kicks, while Okwi’s poked attempt brushed the keeper beaten outside the post.
