Many absences by “Pharaohs” and “Al-Nashami” in the Arab Cup quarter-final match

Egypt fears Jordan's surprises... and Morocco in the 37th dialogue with Algeria

  • Jordanian Abdullah Nassib during their last meeting with Moroccan Gibran.

    AFP

  • The Egyptian Amr Al-Sulayya tries to hinder the progress of the Algerian Ben Ayada in the last match.

    AFP

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Today, the second day of the Arab Cup quarter-finals in the Qatari capital, Doha, witnesses a strong confrontation that brings together the two poles of Maghreb football, the Moroccan team and its Algerian counterpart, in the 37th dialogue in the history of their confrontations in all competitions, while Jordan seeks to overcome the Egyptian team, the difficult number. In the tournament, betting on the element of surprise.

Morocco had started strongly in the Arab Cup, winning by two clean points over Palestine and Jordan, while it overtook Saudi Arabia with a clean goal, to qualify at the top of its third group with the full score.

For its part, Algeria qualified again from Group D with a fair play difference from Egypt, after a draw on points (7) and goal difference (7), as Algeria beat Sudan 4-0, and Lebanon 2-0, before drawing with Egypt 1-1. .

Moroccan coach Al-Hussein Amota relies on several strengths in his reserve squad, most notably Abdelilah Al-Hafidhi, who grabbed the spotlight in the group stage, and who will face a strong confrontation with the captain of the Algerian national team, Yassine Brahimi.

Many observers say that the winner of this match will inevitably be in the final, and perhaps a champion of the Arab Cup, as the two teams showed their fangs from the beginning, and imposed themselves as strong candidates for the title.

The two teams met before in 36 matches, Morocco won 17, Algeria had seven victories, and they drew 12 times.

Morocco won the last match in the 2019 African Nations Championship qualifiers, 3-0.

Morocco also excels in its last confrontations with Algeria in all official matches, starting with the 1986 African Nations Cup in Egypt, which ended in a draw, and in 1988 with the victory of the “Atlas Lions” with a goal for free.

They also faced each other in the second round of the African Nations Cup in Tunisia 2004, where Morocco won 3-1, before Morocco renewed its victory with a clean four in 2012 during the qualifiers for the same tournament, after losing the first leg 1-0.

return « Afsha »

On the other hand, Jordan seeks to achieve the first surprises in the Arab Cup, when it faces its Egyptian counterpart at Al Janoub Stadium.

Jordan qualified for the quarter-finals, occupying second place in Group C with six points from two wins over Saudi Arabia 1-0 and Palestine 5-1, behind Morocco, while the Egyptian team qualified for the fourth group, with a fair play difference from Algeria with seven points from two wins over Sudan 5 - Zero, Lebanon 1-0, and tied with Algeria 1-1.

The confrontation will not be easy for the Jordan national team, which is missing a number of players, either because of injury or because of the Corona virus.

And absent from the ranks of Jordan, led by Iraqi coach Adnan Hamad, is the trio Muhammad Al-Damiri, Ahmed Sarira and Baha Faisal due to injury, and Muhannad Khairallah, who is infected with the Corona virus, in addition to Yazan Al-Arab, who suffers from a slight injury that may prevent him from participating in the Egyptian team, who also misses the trio Ahmed Hegazy. Ayman Ashraf and Akram Tawfiq due to injury.

Among the Jordanian national team, Hamza Al-Dardour, Yassin Al-Bakhit, Bahaa Abdel-Rahman, Mahmoud Mardi and Nour Al-Rawabdeh, in addition to Ali Alwan and Yazan Al-Nuaimat, who scored two goals in the last match against Palestine.

While the return of Mohamed Magdy “Afsha” is good news for Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, along with the experience of goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shennawy, and players Mahmoud Hamdi “Al-Wensh”, Ahmed Aboul Fotouh, Amr Al-Sulayya, Hussein Faisal, Marwan Hamdi, and Mohamed Sherif.

The Jordanian national team had won a friendly 1-0 against its Egyptian counterpart in the last match between the two teams in 2016. Coaches Hamad and Queiroz faced each other twice in 2012 in two friendly matches, which witnessed 2-2 and 0-0 draws, when Hamad was coach of Jordan and Queiroz coach of the Emirates.

Numbers from the date of my confrontation today

■ Morocco met Algeria 36 times in all competitions. Morocco won 17, Algeria seven, and they tied 12 times.

■ Egypt meets Jordan for the fifth time, and won twice before, and tied once, and Jordan won in the last friendly match.

■ The coaches of Egypt and Jordan are facing each other for the third time, and on the previous two occasions, they tied 2-2 and 0-0.

■ Absent from Jordan: Al-Damiri, Sarira, Bahaa Faisal and Muhannad Khairallah, and from Egypt: Ahmed Hegazy, Ayman Ashraf and Akram Tawfiq.

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