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Egypt defeated its host New Zealand 1-0 on Friday at the Misr Stadium in the Administrative Capital, as part of the friendly Egyptian Capital Cup, which will also witness the confrontation between Croatia and Tunisia on Saturday, in the first match for the “Pharaohs” under the leadership of their new coach, Hossam Hassan.

Mostafa Mohamed scored the only goal of the match from a penalty kick in the 29th minute.



Hassan (57 years old), the all-time top scorer for the Egyptian national team, was appointed instead of Portuguese Rui Vitoria in early February, following the failure and exit from the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

The team was missing its first star, Mohamed Salah, who asked to stay with his English team, Liverpool, after finally recovering from an injury he suffered at the beginning of the continental finals.

Salah's absence sparked controversy, especially since he returned to participate with his team and played four matches.

Hassan said in a press conference on March 10, “Salah was suffering from an injury, and his return to participating in matches with Liverpool was gradual, and the technical staff saw that Salah remaining with Liverpool was in the player’s interest at the current time to complete his technical and medical readiness before joining the national team in the camp next June.” Pointing out that “the Egyptian national team is above everyone else.”

Arsenal's English defensive midfielder Mohamed Elneny was also absent because he did not participate in his team's matches on a regular basis, and Hussein El-Shahat and Mustafa Shalabi were injured, in addition to first-choice goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shenawy due to his injury in the African Cup.

The Pharaohs are preparing to continue their journey in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Egypt leads its continental group with two wins over Djibouti (6-0) and Sierra Leone (2-0), and will meet Burkina Faso and then Guinea Bissau in June.

Hassan made six changes to his first starting lineup compared to the last, which lost to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1-2) in the African Cup of Nations, as he started with Mohamed Abu Jabal in goalkeeping, and also included Mohamed Hamdi and Mohamed Hani in the defense line, and Imam Ashour and Mohamed Magdy.” Afsha in the middle, with Omar Marmoush in attack.

Egypt confirmed its superiority over New Zealand by achieving its second victory over them in three matches, including a draw.

Egypt lost Ashour's efforts 26 minutes after the start of the match due to injury, as he left crying, and Hamdi Fathi entered in his place.

Mustafa Mohamed opened the scoring from a penalty kick after a foul on Ashour, which was awarded after returning to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) (29).

AFP