Egypt assistant coach Shawky Gharib is confident his team will beat South Africa and reach the African Cup of Nations finals in 2012
In an interview with Cafonline.com, the Pharaohs’ assistant coach Shawky Gharib has admitted that the defending champions are in a critical situation in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, but argues that it’s nothing new and they will qualify.
“We have had more difficult situations than that before in CAN qualifiers and also in the World Cup qualifiers. We trust our selected players and we will go for the maximum points in the remaining matches. And as a result we have chosen nine players who can play forward in our squad list for this game,” he said.
The seven-time African champions are in a must-win situation when they host South Africa on 5 June in the Military Stadium.
Egypt trail at the bottom of the group with just a point after three games while the Bafana Bafana are on top with seven points.
“Egypt’s national team has got a great will and strength, and we will never surrender. Our players always show what they’ve got when they face situations like that.
“We will have no pressure as many may expect. That happened in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers; we were at the bottom but we won all our games and went on to a decider with Algeria,” he added.
Gharib also stressed that this game is totally different from the one they lost in Johannesburg last March as the players are ready now and have had better preparation after the league resumed in April.
The domestic competitions had been at a standstill since 25 January due to the popular uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak and his regime.
“It’s a decider for us as a team and for the technical staff. Egypt are the defending champions and we have won the previous three African cups, so we have to win on Sunday,” Gharib concluded.
