Egypt hold the aces in final

CAIRO – Hosts Egypt, without disgraced striker Mido, look set to be crowned champions for a record fifth time when they clash with the Ivory Coast in the African Nations Cup final today.

In Tuesday’s semi-finals, the Pharaohs stopped hard-fighting Senegal 2-1 while Ivory Coast pipped Nigeria by a lone goal. Egypt’s semi-final victory was almost overshadowed by the touchline madness of Tottenham forward Ahmed Hossam aka Mido, who in the full public glare questioned coach Hassan Shehata’s decision to take him off against the Senegalese.The Egyptians have insisted that they have put this controversy, which earned Mido a six-month ban, behind them and are only focused now on winning the championship.”Mido is not the Egyptian national team and so we have all set aside what happened on Tuesday night and are fully concentrated on winning the cup for the people of Egypt,” said assistant coach Shawki Gharib.Gharib will also not dismiss the chances of their opponents who they defeated 3-1 in the first round, insisting that the Ivorians will be a different and more difficult preposition in the final.”We may have beaten them in the group stages of this competition but we expect them to be in a different mood for the final.We have already studied them and believe we can beat them to make history,” he said.The records point to an Egyptian triumph.The Pharaohs have won the tournament four times, in 1957, ’59, ’86 and ’98 while the Ivorians’ only victory was in 1992 when they beat Ghana on penalties in Senegal.The Egyptians have also won six of their eight previous encounters in the final tournament of the Nations Cup with the Elephants winning only once in 1990 when the Pharaohs paraded a second-string team prior to the World Cup same year.Ivory Coast coach Henri Michel appears to have eased the pressure around him after qualifying the team to the final and has said this game will extend the rivalry between the two teams.”This was the final many people were dreaming of and it has come to be,” said the Frenchman, who came under heavy fire when the team fell 3-2 at home to Cameroon in a decisive World Cup qualifier in September.”This is another chapter in the rivalry between us which started during the qualifiers and continued in the first round of this tournament.And we have picked up useful lessons from all these games.”The Ivorians also believe that their superb run at this competition has shown their qualification for their first-ever World Cup finals appearance was not a fluke.”People said we were only lucky to qualify for the World Cup and that was why we desperately wanted to beat Cameroon here.And after beating Nigeria in the semi-final, we sent a big warning that even if we are not the best team in Africa, we are on the right path,” said striker Bonaventure Kalou.-Nampa-AFPEgypt’s semi-final victory was almost overshadowed by the touchline madness of Tottenham forward Ahmed Hossam aka Mido, who in the full public glare questioned coach Hassan Shehata’s decision to take him off against the Senegalese.The Egyptians have insisted that they have put this controversy, which earned Mido a six-month ban, behind them and are only focused now on winning the championship.”Mido is not the Egyptian national team and so we have all set aside what happened on Tuesday night and are fully concentrated on winning the cup for the people of Egypt,” said assistant coach Shawki Gharib.Gharib will also not dismiss the chances of their opponents who they defeated 3-1 in the first round, insisting that the Ivorians will be a different and more difficult preposition in the final.”We may have beaten them in the group stages of this competition but we expect them to be in a different mood for the final.We have already studied them and believe we can beat them to make history,” he said.The records point to an Egyptian triumph.The Pharaohs have won the tournament four times, in 1957, ’59, ’86 and ’98 while the Ivorians’ only victory was in 1992 when they beat Ghana on penalties in Senegal.The Egyptians have also won six of their eight previous encounters in the final tournament of the Nations Cup with the Elephants winning only once in 1990 when the Pharaohs paraded a second-string team prior to the World Cup same year.Ivory Coast coach Henri Michel appears to have eased the pressure around him after qualifying the team to the final and has said this game will extend the rivalry between the two teams.”This was the final many people were dreaming of and it has come to be,” said the Frenchman, who came under heavy fire when the team fell 3-2 at home to Cameroon in a decisive World Cup qualifier in September.”This is another chapter in the rivalry between us which started during the qualifiers and continued in the first round of this tournament.And we have picked up useful lessons from all these games.”The Ivorians also believe that their superb run at this competition has shown their qualification for their first-ever World Cup finals appearance was not a fluke.”People said we were only lucky to qualify for the World Cup and that was why we desperately wanted to beat Cameroon here.And after beating Nigeria in the semi-final, we sent a big warning that even if we are not the best team in Africa, we are on the right path,” said striker Bonaventure Kalou.-Nampa-AFP