Ethiopia’s Walia Ibex managed to defeat seven-time African champions Egypt 2-0 at the Bingu National Stadium in Blantyre on Thursday, June 9.
It was a tough fixture that Wubetu Abate’s men faced, and the head coach will certainly be pleased with picking maximum points against the North Africans.
Goals from Dawa Hotesa and Shemeles Bekele saw the East Africans move top of Group D, as Malawi fell to Guinea by a solitary goal in the other match.
It was a largely uneventful game in Blantyre with the visitors seeing the majority of the possession, but they struggled to break down a resilient Ethiopia defence.
Ethiopia took the lead in the 21st minute when Abubeker Nassir skipped past Mahmoud Alaa on the right hand side of the area before sending in a low cross that the sliding Dawa Hotessa converted past poorly-positioned keeper Abou-Gabal.
Three minutes later, the Walia Ibex missed an opportunity to extend their lead when Nassir broke clear from almost the halfway line but his shot past the advancing Abou-Gabal came back off the post and rolled on the goal-line.
However, Ethiopia found their second goal on the 39th minute when Bekele ran onto a threaded pass behind the static defence before lashing the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle.
Ethiopia continued to press the Pharaohs, and looked the more likely to score again, as the game opened up.
Egypt had a few chances to get back into the tie, but everytime a real opportunity opened up for them, they met a defiant Fasil Gerbremichael in the goals, the Ethiopia goalkeeper pulling off a number of good saves to deny the visitors.
Overall though the Pharaohs dominated proceedings in the large part of the second half but failed pounce on their numerous chances as Ethiopia managed to hold on for the famous win.
How they lined-up:
Ethiopia: 23-Fasil Gebremicheal, 21-Asrat Tonjo, 16-Yared Bayeh, 4-Mignot Debebe, 20-Remedan Yusef – 8-Amanuel Yohannes, 18-Shemeles Bekele, 6-Gatoch Panom – 12-Dawa Hutessa, 10-Abubeker Nasir, 11-Amanuel Gebremichael
Egypt: Mohamed Abou-Gabal; Ayman Ashraf, Mahmoud Alaa, Mahmoud Hamdi El-Wench, Omar Gaber; Amr El-Sulaya, Emam Ashour; Mohamed ‘Afsha’ Magdi, Omar Marmoush, Ahmed ‘Zizo’ Sayed, Mostafa Mohamed
