LIVE: Egypt U23 v Cameroon | U23 AFCON 2019

Time: 20:00 CLT | 14:00 ET Canada-USA
Venue: Cairo Stadium, Egypt

Egypt U23 Coach Shawky Gharib said during the Egypt-Cameroon pre-game press conference that although his team has officially qualified for the semifinals, it still needs to secure the lead in their group, and expressed hopes that the game against the Lions will be “worthy of African football.”

Hosts Egypt will face Cameroon in the final round of the Africa U23 Cup of Nations group stage on Thursday at Cairo International Stadium. The contest is being held in Cairo from 8-22 November.

The Pharaohs managed to win their first two matches against Mali (1-0) and Ghana (3-2), while Cameroon tied with Ghana (1-1) and defeated Mali (1-0).

“We have qualified for the next stage but we haven’t achieved our target yet. We want to be first in our group to keep playing at Cairo Stadium instead of moving our games to El-Salam Stadium if we qualify second,” revealed Gharib.

“Cameroon are a big team, we have a long history together. Their coach Song was a great player with great experiences, we have met several times.

“They have good teamwork and possess many distinguished players. We analyse the games to define strengths and weak points. I hope the Egypt-Cameroon game will be worthy of African football,” he added.

Egypt will be missing two of their essential players: Nasser Maher, who suffered an injury in Mali’s game, which will prevent him from playing until the end of the tournament, and Ammar Hamdy, who was given two yellow cards in the two games and as such will not participate in the Cameroon match.

Egypt’s U-23 line-up:

Mohamed Sobhi – Ossama Galal, Mohamed Abdel-Salam, Ahmed Ramadan – Karim El-Iraki, Akram Tawfik, Ahmed Aboul-Fotouh – Ramadan Sobhi, Abdel Raman Magdi, Salah Mohsen, Mostafa Mohamed.