News Center

Egyptian Olympic team defeats UAE 3 – 1 in friendly match.

The Egyptian Olympic team defeated their UAE counterparts 3 - 1 in their second friendly encounter, played on Sunday, October 10 at Khalifa Stadium ground at the Al Ain Club. This came at the end of the seven-day warm-up camp held by the UAE side in Al Ain as part of their preparations before going into the official Olympic games due to start in Guangzhou, China from November 7 to 27. The UAE squad is also preparing for London Olympics 2012, which is the same target of the Egyptians, who are also preparing for the African games. The UAE team earlier trounced the visitors with a humiliating 3-0 defeat in their first friendly played on last Thursday October 7th at the same venue.

The visiting team dominated the game from the start, pressing hard to score an early goal, and soon their efforts were rewarded when the referee whistled for a penalty in the 35th minute. Mahmoud Shaaban converted the ball into the net, giving his side a 1 - 0 lead. Marwan Mohsin added the second goal, with a perfect header from the six-yard area just six minutes before the break.

The hosts reworked their strategy, and came back stronger after their local coach, Mahdi Ali, made some changes as he put on five key players. The substitute Haboosh Saleh netted the UAE's only goal only seven minutes into the second session. His teammates made some good raids to level the score and came close. Unfortunately, Mohammed Fawzi squandered a lovely chance by failing to score when he faced the Egyptian custodian Ali Lotfi after he was put clear in the 54th minute.

Mustafa Jalal of Egypt collected the ball from inside the box, rounded two players before slamming it home, making the final result 3 - 1in the 59th minute. But ten minutes later, Jalal, along with UAE midfielder Amer Abdulrahman, were given marching orders for bad conduct, and both teams played the last 21 minutes with one man less.