Cote d’Ivoire vs Egypt - Africa Cup of Nations Semifinal LiveBlog

Cote d’Ivoire 1-4 Egypt FINAL

Keita 63′; Fathy 12′, Zaky 62′ 67′, Aboutreika 90′

Cup of Nations semi-final
Date: Thursday 7 February
Kick-off: 2030 GMT
Venue: Kumasi Sports Stadium

THAT’s THE GAME! Ivory Coast 1-4 Egypt. Cameroon had better watch out in the final, because Egypt is on fire. Ivory Coast had a good tournament, but they just couldn’t break through here.

90 +4′ Drogba heads it out. El-Hadary is in no hurry to take the goal kick.

90 + 2 Zidan gets another shot off that goes wide.

90 + 1 GOAL!!! Egypt. Everybody from Ivory Coast was attacking. Zidan charged up the left flank and delivered a perfect ball to an unmarked Aboutreika, who clinically slots it home.

90′ Four minutes of stoppage time.

89′ Boka is wide open and shoots hard. El-Hadary saves it without too much effort.

87′ Ahmed Hassan gets kneed in the thigh and goes down. And stays down. Dramatically.

86′ Ibrahim Said in for Zaky. Slowly.

86′ Boka shoots wide.

85′ Kolo Toure gets off a long, hard shot. El-Hadary has to push it over. He does the same to the resulting corner.

84′ Moon over Kumasi. I didn’t catch the players, but an Egyptian player pulls down the shorts of an Ivory Coast player.

82′ Free kick against Didier Zakora for a foul on Aboutreika. Hassan’s free kick goes very wide.

81′ Ivory Coast get off three shots in quick succession, but Egypt holds on.

79′ Kone in, Dindane out for Ivory Coast.

77′ Fathallah in for Maowad for Egypt.

76′ Yaya Toure shoots just wide.

75′ Dindane goes down easily outside the box again. Drogba sends the kick too high for Kolo Toure. Goal kick.

72′ The action is moving so fast end to end I’m not even able to see everything. Zidan came in a couple of minutes ago for an ineffective Moteab.

71′ Back up immediately for Ivory Coast. Hosny saves it.

70′ Zaky shoots just wide. He’s getting these defenders’ number.

69′ Boka crosses to Drogba, who goes for a left-footed bicycle kick. It goes over the bar.

68′ GOAL!!! Egypt/ Zaky fakes out Kolo Toure and blasts the ball home.

66′ Offside Drogba. Ivory Cost has come alive.

63′ GOAL!!!! Ivory Coast takes it right back down and plays it to Keita who blasts it just inside the far post. This game isn’t over yet.

62′ GOALLL! Egypt win back to back corners. On the second, Zaky catches everybody by surprise by heading the second one in after Didier Zakora heads it right to him.

58′ Keita charges up the right again and gets sandwiched between two defenders and brought down. The free kick is perfectly placed and El-Hadary can just barely tap it over the bar.

55′ Zaky sends a long shot straight to Loboue, who catches it easily and sends it back down for the counter. Kalou(?) takes a nice shot that goes just wide.

54′ Ivory Coast puts together another nice combination, but Kalou shoots high.

50′ Keita delivers a pretty cross to Dindane, who goes down easily in the box while trying to bring it back toward goal. El-Hadary and Drogba both go down. El-Hadary stays down for awhile, but eventually gets up.

49′ Egypt takes it up the left side and crosses to Moteab, who comes close to getting a head on it. Loboue was out of position, so it’s good that he didn’t.

48′ Drogba gets another great opportunity. He heads the ball toward goal, forcing El Hadary to make a great save. That one was close. This second half has been all Ivory Coast.

47′ Ivory Coast gets a questionable free kick, which goes to Drogba and out.

47′ Ivory Coast gets a good opportunity, but Keita is offside.

46′ The second half begins. If Egypt stays up, they’ll probably save Zidan for the final.

45 + 7 That’s the half. 1-0 Egypt after some fast, frantic and rough play in the last few minutes. The ref blows the whistle and there’s some shoving as the players head to the tunnel.

45 + 6 Kalou shows some lovely foot skills around the box, causing Egypt to scramble. But in the end they can’t capitablize.

45 + 5 Excellent corner by Boka directly to Drogba’s head. Drogba delivers a bullet toward the goal, but it goes straight to El-Hadary.

45 + 4 Keita and Zaky wrestle each other down. Ivory Coast gets the free kick, which goes out.

45 + 1 Moawad goes down after some wrestling with Keita, which I didn’t see because I was typing. No call from the linesman even though he was right there.

45′ Loboue makes his first save on a soft shot from Rabou. Loboue didn’t look all that confident. Maybe this save will help.

44′ Six minutes of stoppage time for all the injuries.

42′ Egypt is really going on the attack. Eboue is defending well, but a lot of the Ivory Coast players are looking rattled.

40′ Egypt looks dangerous up the right side, but in the end Ivory Coast defends well and the cross goes to nobody.

37′ Barry reluctantly calls for a substitution. Loboue come in. Coach Gili looks stressed. This is not good for Ivory Coast, both losing their starting keeper and having to use a sub.

36′ Barry stays down and seems to be holding his groin. Loboue is warming up. Not good for Ivory Coast.

34′ Egypt passes it around at the back for a long period before driving forward. Zaky (?) puts in a pretty cross that’s a little too hard and goes out for a goal kick. This time IC keeper Barry goes down after perhaps getting stepped on.

32′ Drogba goes for a header and gets knocked out of the air. It takes him a minute to get up.

30′ Aboutreika takes an excellent hard shot that goes just to the left of goal

29′ Drogba gets an excellent chance, but hesitates a bit too long, allowing El-Hadary to get into position and block. El-Hadary goes down, although the shot wasn’t all that hard. Both sides want handball, but it’s not given. Replay shows it may have come off Gomaa’s hand in the box. Very lucky for Egypt that it wasn’t seen.

27′ Dindane goes down and Ivory Coast is awarded an iffy free kick which goes straight to Egypt. Said is back in.

26′ Said gets hit in the side of the head with the ball and goes down. He looks groggy and is carried off on a stretcher.

25′ Egypt plays a nice game of keep away around the box but can’t get a shot off. In the end Fathy shoots wide.

22′ Dindane gets pushed down by Maowad. The ref decides he went down too easy and doesn’t award the free kick, but Ivory Coast gets a corner. It goes to Kalou(?)’s head, but goes way wide to the touchline.

21′ The ball is moving end to end with a fair bit of pace. Zaky gets a shot, but it’s blocked by Eboue.

18′ Long ball to Dindade is almost perfectly delivered in front of goal, but it bounces off Mohammed for the corner. Corner goes nowhere.

17′ The goal will probably be counted as a Fathy goal, not a Kalou own goal.

16′ Dindane charges up the left side, crosses to Kalou who tries to lay it back, but it’s intercepted by Egypt.

14′ Ivory Coast gets a free kick, but it’s headed out by Gomaa.

12′ GOAL!!! Egypt. Corner for Egypt is deflected way back to Fathy, who shoots hard from outside the box. It bounces off of Kalou and into the goal. Ouch.

11′ Drogba gets an excellent opportunity, but Gomaa cut him off and he has to shoot at a sharp angle. It goes to El Hadary.

10′ Free kick to Egypt after Zaky(?) is pulled down a few yards outside and to the left of the box. The ball goes into the stands.

7′ Drogba is holding Faty by the shirt, which leads to Drogba being elbowed in the face. Probably an accident. Free kick for Ivory Coast goes to a head (Kone?) but the ball goes away from the goal.

6′ Toure is back on. Most of the play right now is heading up the right for Egypt.

5′ Dindane gets a shot, but Egypt blocks. Yaya Toure goes down after taking a boot to the face from Gomaa. His mouth is bleeding, but he’ll be back.

3′ Long ball up the field for Moteab, but Barry snatches it out of the air.

1′ We’re off.

-1′ Zidan and Shawky are both on the bench, which is good for Egypt.

-2′ Egypt has three strikers and a very attack-oriented side. Because defense is really overrated.

-6′ National anthems are playing. I absolutely love the players who can’t sing but do anyway. I’m serious. It warms my heart.

-8′ Actual starting lineups: Zidan is out, Shawky is out for Egypt. (Ouch.) Hassan in instead. And Kolo Toure will be playing for Ivory Coast.

-11′ Eurosport is showing Egypt in 3-5-2 with Zidan starting. We’ll see if that’s accurate. They’re also showing Cote d’Ivoire in 4-4-2 with no Kolo Toure.

I’m still amazed at the fact that these games aren’t sold out.

Hi and welcome to the World Cup Blog liveblog. Contrary to what your screen may tell you, this is actually Laurie and not Daryl.

The Egyptians are looking to defend their African Cup of Nations title. The Ivoirians are looking for revenge here after being ousted from the 2006 final by Egypt on penalties.

In his preview, Daryl describes the match like this:

Didier Drogba and friends are scoring goals like there’s no tomorrow and Ivory Coast look to have arguably the most attacking options of any team at the tournament, but they’re still waiting to see whether defensive colossus Kolo Toure is fit enough to play. Egypt were slick against Angola, but have had a run of relatively easy games since beating Cameroon 4-2 in the opener. The team has no obvious weaknesses, and has all kinds of creative talent (Hassan, Aboutreika etc) so tomorrow we’ll find out if Hassan Shehata (the last African coach standing) and his men have what it takes to go all the way.

Expected starting lineups, according to Reuters:

Egypt: 1-Essam Al Hadari; 5-Shady Mohamed, 6-Hani Said, 20-Wael Gomaa, 14-Sayed Moawad; 8-Hosni Abd Rabou, 11-Mohamed Shawky, 7-Ahmed Fathi, 22-Mohamed Aboutrika; 10-Emad Moteab, 19-Amr Zaki

Ivory Coast: 1-Boubacar Barry; 3-Arthur Boka, 4-Kolo Toure, 12-Abdoulaye Meite, 21-Emmanuel Eboue; 5-Didier Zokora, 19-Yaya Toure, 18-Abdelkader Keita; 8-Salomon Kalou, 15-Aruna Dindane, 11-Didier Drogba

Scouting report:

Cote d’Ivoire: The Ivoirians may be without defender Kolo Toure, who was carried off the field with a groin strain during the group stage.

Egypt: The Egyptian team may be without Mohamed Zidan, who picked up an “ankle knock” in one of the early games. The hope is that he’ll at least be able to come on as a substitute.

Watching the games:

http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/sun3.2/CoteDIvoire_Guinea.html
http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/sun3.2/CoteDIvoire_Guinea2.html

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