Confederations Cup - Italy stunned by Egypt

Eurosport - Fri, 19 Jun 09:12:00 2009

Egypt scored their greatest ever victory in Johannesburg with a thoroughly deserved 1-0 win over world champions Italy who had never previously lost to an African team.

FOOTBALL Egypt's Mohamed Hommos celebrates with team mates after scoring against Italy during their Confederations Cup match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg - 0

The shock result means Group B in the Confederations Cup hangs in the balance with all four teams still able to progress to next week's semi-finals.

Mohamed Hommos's goal five minutes before halftime clinched the first points of the tournament for the African champions, who narrowly lost 4-3 to Brazil in their opening game.

Most of the Egyptians and coach Hassan Shehata shed tears of joy at the final whistle as they became the first African side in 15 attempts to beat the Italians.

Key second half saves from veteran goalkeeper Essam Al Hadari, who had an inspired match, kept the Italians at bay while Vincenzo Iaquinta hit the crossbar with just minutes remaining as Egypt weathered a late onslaught.

Brazil, who beat the United States in Pretoria earlier on Thursday, lead the standings with six points while Italy and Egypt have three.

Brazil and Italy meet in Pretoria on Sunday while the Egyptians play the Americans, who have yet to pick up a point, in Rustenburg at the same time.

Despite losing both games the US still have a remote chance of getting through to the last four.

Lippi made five changes to the team that started against the US with the return of fit-again captain Fabio Cannavaro, winning his 124th cap - two short of Paolo Maldini's all-time Italian record of 126.

Cannavaro, typically, added steel to the Italian defence, while Giuseppe Rossi, who came on as a substitute and scored twice against the US, added youthful zest to the attack.

Both teams enjoyed plenty of possession in their first meeting since Italy beat Egypt 5-1 in a World Cup qualifier 55 years ago, but it was a still a real surprise when the Egyptians took the lead five minutes before the break.

Italy only had themselves to blame, leaving Hommos unmarked to score with a powerful header from Mohamed Aboutrika's perfect inswinging corner.

The Italians had also trailed the US 1-0 at the break in their opening match, before coming back strongly to win.

But Egypt held their nerve and their ground despite Italy bringing in attacking reinforcements Luca Toni, Simone Pepe and Riccardo Montolivo in the second half.

They might have known it was not to be their night when El Hadari made two fine stops in two minutes in the first half from Iaquinta after 24 minutes and Rossi, who forced the keeper into another fine save when he palmed the ball over the bar.

Egypt, despite winning only once in their last five matches and getting off to a poor start in their final World Cup qualifying group, never looked overawed by the Italians.

Mohamed Shawky and Sayed Moawad gave as good as they got in the midfield battle for supremacy, with Italy's Gennaro Gattuso,

De Rossi and Andrea Pirlo battling to cope with the inventiveness of the African champions' approach play.

Both teams threatened after the break, and El Hadari made another excellent save from Montolivo after 74 minutes to keep Egypt in the lead.

Iaquinta almost equalised for Italy five minutes from time, only to see his long range curling shot hit the bar and Italy's hopes of winning the game bounce away with it.

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Reuters

Comment 107 - 126 of 126

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  1. In order for egypt to really show the world what­ they're made of, they need to make the next world­ cup. What I find interesting is that we wore the same­ uniform in our loss to egypt like we did in our loss to­ north korea in 1966. Blue jersey and black shorts.­ I've also gotta say that mohamed hommos's still­ not the david that killed goliath. He would only be­ that if it was the world cup. Pak doo-ik still holds­ that title.

    From link.tothepast, on Sun 21 Jun 12:44AM

  2. GREAT EGYPT U SHOWED BRASIL HOW TO ATTACK AND SHOWED­ ITALY HOW TO DEFEND LOL

    From TamerA, on Sat 20 Jun 11:47PM

  3. romahabs27 is it offensive when christian players cross­ themselves after they score no so why is it offensive­ when muslim players offer thanks to allah or are you­ just an uneducated bigot just for your info egypt are­ reigning african champs and have one that tournament­ more times than any other african nation 3 more times­ to be precise and there top club side alahly are the­ current club champions ..not a fluke a deserved win­ watched in a hotel with a mixed bunch of fellow­ europeans who all agreed italyt were second best on the­ night .

    From egg chaser, on Sat 20 Jun 8:37PM

  4. congratulation to Egypt for a well deserved win!But­ dont slug Italy off,or the Italian way of life,that is­ a bit below the belt,in how many World Cup finals have­ you been LATELY?okidoki

    From tonytocco95, on Sat 20 Jun 10:44AM

  5. okidoki,Egypt has won a game,at International level in­ a competition,good,and well deserved,but to say that­ Italy has won previous Cups by cheating,is a bit­ farfetched, you don't win under 21s cups,and­ European cups,and world cups,unless you are good,maybe­ a bit lucky I can give you that,but please look at the­ records in football history...Forza Azzurri...and play­ with your heart and sweat next time ,,okidoki

    From tonytocco95, on Sat 20 Jun 10:38AM

  6. Those who r comparing zambia's win in the olympics­ 1988 against Italy to Egypt's histroic win against­ Italy today r either sick or sick!! Italy in 1988 had­ one of the worst sides in thier history and tht one­ played in the olmpics was thier junior olympic team­ without a single professional in it so lets say tht­ this is the 1st ever win for an African country against­ a professional Italy team not only tht an Italy team­ tht r the current holders of the World Cup and with­ almost the same formation tht beat France in the final­ ..Egypt have style and flair in thier play tht makes­ the Italian game look so boring and out of style thts­ exactly why god favoured and will always favour Egypt­ infront of oppositions like Italy and others ..Goo­ Egypt ur the best

    From mmjnr, on Sat 20 Jun 9:10AM

  7. sorry for the wrong score entered on my earlier post­ the corrected is down here

    Egypt scored their greatest­ ever victory in Johannesburg with a thoroughly deserved­ 1-0 win over world champions Italy who had never­ previously lost to an African team.

    i dont think is­ true becos at the 1988 games the results were as­ follows
    Zambia (2) Vs Iraq (2)
    Zambia (4) Vs Italy­ (0)

    and now in the year 2009
    the results are­ Egypt(1) vs Italy(0).

    truth of the matter is that­ Zambia is the first african country and not Egypt like­ it or not this is the blue truth. so please read your­ facts or even research more before mislead the masses.

    From Biggie, on Sat 20 Jun 8:14AM

  8. Egypt scored their greatest ever victory in­ Johannesburg with a thoroughly deserved 1-0 win over­ world champions Italy who had never previously lost to­ an African team.

    i dont think is true becos at the­ 1988 games the results were as follows
    Zambia (2) Vs­ Iraq (2)
    Zambia (4) Vs Italy (4)

    and now in the year­ 2009
    the results are Egypt(1) vs Italy(0).

    truth of­ the matter is that Zambia is the first african country­ and not Egypt like it or not this is the blue truth. so­ please read your facts or even research more before­ mislead the masses.

    From Biggie, on Sat 20 Jun 8:11AM

  9. Hey post #122, I'm an azzurri tifosi and I'm­ going to have to agree with you on this one. We had­ chances to capitalize and we came up short. I'm­ sorry to say this, but you guys did deserve the win­ fair and square. But just remember, the world cup is­ where it really counts. Confederations cup is good and­ all. But it's not the world cup.

    From link.tothepast, on Sat 20 Jun 3:50AM

  10. Hey Gee, comment #67, I wasn't saying that Italy­ won. What I was saying was that the world cup is what­ really counts. Confederations cup is cool and all. But­ the world cup of all things is what really counts. Not­ the euros. Not the concacaf gold cup. Not the OFC­ championship. Not the asian cup. Not the african­ nations cup. Not copa america. The world cup. So we got­ beat by egypt. big deal. I hate to break it to you but­ it wasn't black and blue. It was a close game. If­ you want black and blue, take what we did to ukraine in­ the quarter finals in front of their prime minister in­ 2006. Or even better, england not even making the euros­ in 2008. That's what you call black and blue.

    From link.tothepast, on Sat 20 Jun 3:43AM

  11. I am an egyptian, and i agree that egypt were abit­ outplayed in the second half, but to all italians here­ saying that its undeserved and talking about cheating­ and so on, stop being hypocrits, how the hell do u­ think u won the world cup??!! defending, diving,­ cheating, aggressive play, isnt that the way italy have­ been playing for years. Egypt showed they can play­ attractive football against brazil, so we have nothing­ to proove. A game is a game, we won fair and square so­ stop winning about it, go get a life and stop being a­ disgrace as u always have been.

    From m.shalaby2, on Sat 20 Jun 12:55AM

  12. EGYPT

    From toufi, on Fri 19 Jun 9:46PM

  13. Egypt Taught Brazil & Italy the Pharoahs tactics in­ Football the Lesson is over

    From toufi, on Fri 19 Jun 9:45PM

  14. hey romahabs 27, if u r claiming that we r delusional­ then I`m sure that u r blind in both yr eyes and yr­ heart and actually yr heart must be so black that u­ lost yr insight and I advise u to go and see a shrink­ maybe u will get better, then u should take courses­ about how soccer is played and then u may put yr­ comments. u r just a lousy fanatic who looks in one­ direction as far as yr nose only. Didnot u hear the­ comments about the refere and how lousy he was, he­ simply didnot see the fouls of Italy on Egypt but the­ opposite was true . it is only u r not accepting the­ idea that Egypt won italy as simple as that. havenot u­ watch Egypt with Brasil. I hope that Brasil wins Italy­ and Egypt wins USA then Italy will be out and then u go­ and kill yr self.

    From Ziad D, on Fri 19 Jun 9:43PM

  15. Hope that brazil play Fair against ­ Italy...................
    And hope Egypt to beat USA 4-0

    From mahmoud, on Fri 19 Jun 7:59PM

  16. I think that Italy must learn that Egypt players­ already won the Match and the it's 1-0
    I like to­ see Italy players sad as they didn't respect Egypt­ players before the match..

    From mahmoud, on Fri 19 Jun 7:57PM

  17. to every stupied A$$ who are saying that egypt played­­ defence only well hear this u stupied f****k egypt are­­ playing for the first time in their life in a tourment­­ like this it's normal once they have a goal they­­ will defend but hey Italy was lucky today because­ Egypt­ also had a lot of chance to score but lots of­ players­ weren't in shape and another word u dumb­ this­ people came here to prove themself and they did­ against­ two major teams (the most winning for world­ cup) ITALY­ & BRASIL they also scored 3 goals in­ brazil­ haven't been done since 2005 WHAT WAS THE­ SCORE OF­ YOUR TEAM AGIANST BRAZIL ????????,finally­ give them­ credit they deserved

    From vandork85, on Fri 19 Jun 4:53PM

  18. The African Champions are showing the so called World­ Champs how they should keep up. So Italy went there­ thinkin they goin win but hey, its the Pharoahe's­ in Africa.

    From Skamaru, on Fri 19 Jun 3:53PM

  19. A deserved win??? You all must be delusional you think­ getting outshot 19-5 is worthy of a deserving win. Not­ to mention the amount of time wasting and over all­ cheating from the Egyptian team. If that was Italy­ diving all over the pitch like that we would never hear­ the end of it. Btw that celebration after the goal­ should bane, it’s very offending!!!

    From Shark Fin, on Fri 19 Jun 3:39PM

  20. i'm sure brazil will let italy win 1-0 to prevent­ egypt from qualifying ... in this case egypt must beat­ usa 3-0
    god with us , and brazil must play fair

    From eslam a, on Fri 19 Jun 2:42PM
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