Costa Rica's Diego Estrada, left, battles with Hosam Hassan of Egypt in Cairo.
CAIRO - Costa Rica beat Egypt 2-0 yesterday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Under-20 World Cup, dumping the hosts out of the tournament.
Costa Rica captain Jose Mena scored with a diving header in the 21st minute from a free kick taken by David Guzman to silence more than 60,000 home fans at Cairo International Stadium
Costa Rican goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado made some outstanding saves to preserve the lead before Marcos Urena added the second two minutes from full time with a powerfully struck shot past Egyptian keeper Aly Lofti. But none was converted, prompting coach Miroslav Soukup to make a double substitution with only seven minutes of the second half played. Off came captain Ahmed Shoukri and Hussam Arafat, and on came attacking duo Afroto and Bogy - both known, Brazilian style, by just the one name. Afroto had been a starter in Egypt's three previous games whilst Bogy scored twice to help them beat Italy - and is known to have been unhappy to have been on the bench. Egypt kept on pressing but to no avail and time was starting to run out for the Young Pharaohs. Afroto had one beautiful free-kick well saved by Alvarado but Egypt were simply not able to finish and with two minutes remaining Urena cut inside down the right and struck a fine goal to send the hosts crashing out of the tournament.
From the Egyptian Gazette
