{"id":1512,"date":"2025-12-23T05:53:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T05:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2025-12-23T06:00:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:00:21","slug":"egypt-survive-zimbabwe-scare-win-afcon-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/?p=1512","title":{"rendered":"Egypt survive Zimbabwe scare, win AFCON opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RABAT<\/strong> \u2013 RECORD tournament winners, Egypt, survived a scare as they opened a campaign to end a 15-year wait to lift the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hard-fought 2-1 win over Zimbabwe at the Stade Adrar is testament of the gap closing between the heavyweights and the minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottled evening by resolute defending by Zimbabwe, Mohammed Salah pounced out of the blue to break Zimbabwean hearts in stoppage time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On paper, this was a mismatch, a duel between record seven-time champions and a team that has never progressed from the group stages in their five appearances at the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if there is a team that is ever a nuisance for Egypt, it is Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They knocked them out in the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their last meeting at the tournament in 2004, Zimbabwe\u2019s first AFCON appearance, Zimbabwe led and had a panicky Egypt eventually eking a 2-1 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday evening in Morocco, the same scenario prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prince Dube returned scored the opening goal, turning expertly and controlling deftly to fire past Mohamed El Shenawy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed brilliant work on the right by Emmanuel Jalai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zimbabwe held on to their lead to the break, thanks to the heroics of 40-year-old goalkeeper, Washington Arubi, and a glut of wasted opportunities by Salah and co.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The veteran was called to action again to repel a goal-bound effort by Omar Marmoush in the 54th minute as Egypt rallied for an equalizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the other end, his opposite number, El Shenawy had to dive low to thwart substitute Macauley Bonne from increasing Zimbabwe\u2019s advantage in the 61st minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressure eventually paid off for the Egyptians in the 64th minute when Marmoush leveled the scores from an angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the match seemingly heading for a draw, superstar Salah shrugged off a challenge in the box and on the turn, fired in the winner in the first of four minutes added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier on Monday, Zambia also scored in added time to secure a 1-1 draw against Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa beat Angola 2-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 CAJ News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RABAT \u2013 RECORD tournament winners, Egypt, survived a scare as they opened a campaign to end a 15-year wait to lift the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The hard-fought 2-1 win over Zimbabwe at the Stade Adrar is testament of the gap closing between the heavyweights and the minors. Bottled evening by resolute defending by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,19,110,13],"tags":[267],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-football","category-football-sports","category-sports","tag-mohamed-salah-gave-egypt-2-1-victory-over-zimbabwe"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah-150x150.jpeg","medium":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah-300x141.jpeg","medium_large":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah-768x360.jpeg","large":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah.jpeg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah.jpeg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah.jpeg","post-thumbnail":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah.jpeg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"administrator","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3d5ebfe727f13fb325bd400aaaf5e789d3e2e20898883d9ae8e3d3d42d58cef?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"RABAT \u2013 RECORD tournament winners, Egypt, survived a scare as they opened a campaign to end a 15-year wait to lift the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The hard-fought 2-1 win over Zimbabwe at the Stade Adrar is testament of the gap closing between the heavyweights and the minors. Bottled evening by resolute defending by […]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Featured","Football","Football","Sports"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":99,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah.jpeg",800,375,false],"medium":["https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah-300x141.jpeg",300,141,true],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mohamed-Salah-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"administrator","author_link":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/?author=2"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3d5ebfe727f13fb325bd400aaaf5e789d3e2e20898883d9ae8e3d3d42d58cef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Featured<\/a> Football<\/a> Football<\/a> Sports<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions\/1513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matabeletoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}