With the exception of a single and difficult victory achieved by the Moroccan team in the last minutes of the match against Ghana, the Arab teams came out disappointed in the first round of the African Nations Cup held in Cameroon, although they are candidates to reach the final rounds of the tournament.
The Algerian national team, the champion, fell to a goalless draw against Sierra Leone, on Tuesday, in the first match of Group E of the tournament.
Under difficult weather conditions, the “Desert Warriors” showed a modest level in the first half, improving in the second without hitting the net, in light of the brilliance of the Sierra Leone goalkeeper.
Algeria and Sierra Leone each gained a point in the strong fifth group.
As for Egypt, the record holder in the number of titles, it suffered its first loss in the group stage of the African Nations Cup in 18 years, by falling to its Nigerian counterpart 0-1 on Tuesday in Garoua, Cameroon, in the opening of the fourth group competitions.
Leicester City’s English striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, scored the only goal of the match when he got the ball inside the area, controlled it and shot it with his left on the fly to hug the net in the 30th minute.
newspaper said “sunThe British national team coach, Carlos Queiroz, initially raised eyebrows with a 0-5-5 formation, but after the start of the match, it became clear that the Liverpool star, Mohamed Salah, was a spearhead.
The newspaper said that, unlike the Nigerian team, which showed a good balance between attack and defense, Salah did not show anything at all in the match.
Sudan’s meeting with Guinea-Bissau ended in a 0-0 draw in a match that saw the latter’s player, Godilson “Pele” Gomez miss a penalty kick, which was saved by Sudan goalkeeper Ali Abu Ashyn in the 79th minute.
As for Tunisia, it started its campaign in the African Championship with a defeat against Mali.
In a strange and rare incident, the match referee blew the final whistle before the ninetieth minute, which angered the “Carthage Eagles” team, which was looking for the equalizer in Limbe, Cameroon, on Wednesday in the first round of Group F matches.
This end angered the Tunisian technical staff and the players, and coach Munther Al-Kabeer approached the referee, pointing to his watch, as if telling him that the time was not over yet, but to no avail, before the refereeing staff came out with a security escort.
Minutes after the players entered the dressing room, one of the main assistant referees returned and the two teams were called back to the field to complete the match, while the Mali players returned, their Tunisian counterparts did not return.
A CAF official told AFP that the match should have ended, with three minutes remaining, but the Tunisian team did not return to the field, prompting the referee to end it.
The Mauritanian national team lost against Gambia, on Wednesday, in a match that witnessed an embarrassing incident after playing the wrong national anthem for the Mauritanian team three times.
The Mauritanian national team players seemed confused, some shaking their heads, after two failed attempts to play the national anthem.
As for the Comoros, it was not able to achieve a positive result in its first historic participation in the African Cup, and fell to Gabon with a goal of zero scored by the Qatari striker, Aaron Boubendza, in the 16th minute.
The Moroccan team was the only exception in the performance of the Arabs in the first round of the tournament, after achieving a Gal victory and fought against Ghana 1-0 on Monday at the “Ahmedou Ahidjo” stadium in Yaounde at the top of the first round of Group C competitions for the 33rd edition of the African Nations Cup in football.
Angers striker Sofiane Boufal scored Morocco’s only goal in the 83rd minute to give the Atlas Lions a valuable victory in the tournament.
It is noteworthy that the champion and runner-up of each group and the best four third-placed teams qualify for the 16th round of the final 16.