Egypt 1-1 Kenya | Match highlights | AFCON 2021 Q

Egypt started their 2021 qualifying campaign with a disappointing 1-1 draw by Kenya at Alexandria’s Borg El-Arab Stadium on Thursday.

Mahmoud ‘Kahraba’ Abdel-Moneam opened the scoring for the Pharaohs, three minutes before the break, while Kenya’s Michael Olunga leveled the score for the visitors seven minutes after the hour-mark.

The Pharaohs seemed affected by the absence of Liverpool’s classy winger Mohamed Salah, who missed the game due to injury, as they failed to impress against Kenya (108th in FIFA ranking), a team that they outrank by almost 60 places in the FIFA October ranking.

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Hossam El-Badry said his team was affected both by the absence of star winger Mohamed Salah and the lengthy suspension of the Egyptian Premier League.

“Our performance will improve when Salah and Abdallah El-Said return to the squad and the fans should also return to stands,” El-badry told the post game’s press conference.

Egypt are now second in group G with a single point, two points behind leaders Comoros, who claimed a 1-0 away win over Togo earlier in the day. Egypt will face Comoros away from home on Monday.

The Egyptian Premier League was suspended for a month due to the participation of Olympic national team participation in the U23 Africa Cup of Nations, which takes place in Egypt from 8 – 22 November.