Harambee Stars displayed a good performance on Thursday to hold the Pharaohs to a one-all draw in both teams opening matches of Group G 2021 AFCON qualifiers at El Borg Stadium in Alexandria on Thursday evening.
Egypt were missing Liverpool forward Mohammed Salah due to injury. They scored their opening goal through Mahmoud Kahraba at the 42nd minute. Harambee Stars and Kashiwa Reysol forward Michael Olunga levelled the scores in the 67th minute.
Harambee Stars Head Coach Francis Kimanzi had to make substitutions in the first half following injuries to goalkeeper Patrick Matasi and Ayub Timbe. They were replaced by Ian Otieno and Cliff Nyakeya respectively.
Harambee Stars are expected back home on Saturday ahead of their next AFCON qualifier match against Togo on Monday at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani. In the other Group G match, Togo lost at home 1-0 to Comoros.
Harambee Stars faced off the pitch challenges in the build up to the match. The team risked being kicked out of their hotel over unpaid accommodation bills. The team left Nairobi without accommodation money which the Sports ministry promised to send but it had not done so by Wednesday. It took the intervention of Dr. Ashraf Sobhy, Egypt’s Sports minister, who guaranteed the team their stay for the night.
Harambee Stars Coach Francis Kimanzi said Harambee Stars deserved to win.
“My players did exactly what I asked them to do, play like fighters and take the game to Egypt and it exactly worked out,” Said Francis Kimanzi after the game.
He also added that Stars had control of the game.
“We took control of the game from the onset, we missed two clear cut chances which should have changed the tide of the game, we were also unlucky to lose our key players keeper Patrick Matasi and winger Ayub Timbe to injuries in the first half. The exit of the two players forced me to change our game plan again and it really worked against us. However, we still managed to push them hard and even in the second half, we were on top of our game.’’
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