Egypt to be among qualified teams to 2021 AFCON: coach

Egypt’s national team coach Hossam El-Badry on Tuesday asserted that the national team would qualify to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations despite the poor performance in the first two rounds after drawing with Comoros and Kenya.

“Egypt will be among the qualified teams to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in the end,” El-Badry told post game press conference.

Egypt tied with Comoros 0-0 in the second round of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at Malouzini Stadium, to be the second successive draw after their 1-1 game against Kenya last Thursday.

“We are facing tough circumstances in the latest period which caused this result. The national team are suffering from many tough situations, most notably the absence of a number of players,” the Ahly former coach said.

Egypt are now second in their Group G standings with two points, while Comoros lead the group with four points, after they had defeated Togo 1-0  in the first round.

“Some people attack me without any ideas, and say that everything was provided to the national team and that there are no problems, which is totally wrong. I didn’t talk about it not to justify the poor performance,” he added.

El-Badry assured that the pause of the Egyptian Premier League and Pyramids’ players not participating in the national team affected the performance of the players negatively..

The Egyptian Premier League is now paused due to the U23 Africa Cup of Nations hosted by Egypt from 8 to 22 November.

Meanwhile, Pyramids players didn’t participate during Kenya and Comoros games because El-Badry refused Pyramids’ request that the players join the national team’s camp later than the scheduled date.

Source: Ahram Online