Egyptian forward Amr Zaki (F)scoring against Algeria during their 2010 World Cup African zone Group C qualifying match in Cairo yesterday. Photo by Amr el-Maraghi
EGYPT and Algeria will play in a World Cup decider in Sudan on Wednesday after collecting equal points and goals in last night's thriller in Cairo.Amr Zaki opened the scoring for the Pharaohs in the 2nd minute of the game, to give hope to the 74,000 capacity crowd in the Cairo International Stadium, but a host of missed chances kept them on their toes until the very end when it was Meteab's header that gave them the victory they needed
The early goal unsettled the Algerians who were struggling to find each other on the pitch with inaccurate passes.Another great chance fell to the Egyptians in the 10th minute but Gaouaoui this time was able to stop the attempt.Meteab replaced Zaki after 65 minutes and when all seemed lost, he rose to head the ball into the far corner of the net past Algerian goalkeeper Lounes Gaouaoui.In the 34th minute Karim Matmour had a shot from distance deviated into a corner kick after some good interplay between him and Mourad Meghni but nothing came of the cross that followed. Egypt respond-ed with their own bit of pressure but Mohamed Abou Treika's cross was just a bit too tall for Mohamed Homos who could only deviate it slightly but not towards goal.The Pharaohs then forced two corner kicks that they were unable to take advan-tage of yet it was the Algerians who got the final chance of the period and El-Hadary was called upon again in stoppage time to save Antar Yahia's weak strike despite his good positioning. Entering the final twenty minutes, the Egyptians began pushing everything for-ward to get the goal that would force a one match playoff and the visitors were bend-ing but not breaking.Egypt, a record six-time winner of the African Cup of Nations, hasn't reached the World Cup since 1990. The last time Algeria played in the World Cup was 24 years ago.Thousands of Egyptian fans took to the streets last night to celebrate the hard-won victory. They waved the national flag and blew car horns in overjoy.
