{"id":370738,"date":"2025-12-26T20:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/370738\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T20:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:50:13","slug":"afcon-2025-egypt-1-0-south-africa-mohamed-salah-penalty-books-last-16-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/370738\/","title":{"rendered":"Afcon 2025: Egypt 1-0 South Africa &#8211; Mohamed Salah penalty books last 16 spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There seemed little need for the officials to get involved when Salah went down after being touched on the face during a footrace with Khuliso Mudau, but Ndabihawenimana awarded the decisive penalty following a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review and pitchside monitor check on a flailing arm from the dismayed right-back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The protesting Foster joined Mudau in the book before Salah chipped in his Panenka finish to move four goals shy of head coach Hossam Hassan&#8217;s record 69 goals for Egypt, scoring his second of the finals following his 91st-minute strike in Monday&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/live\/clyd5lv9wxxt\" class=\"ssrcss-13gq6qs-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">comeback victory over Zimbabwe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Both of Hany&#8217;s cautions seemed careless, clearly pulling back Tshepang Moremi despite little apparent danger and treading on Teboho Mokoena&#8217;s ankle in a clumsy challenge on the touchline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Moremi&#8217;s half-time introduction against Angola helped transform South Africa&#8217;s performance in their opener, finding the net with an effort which was narrowly ruled out for offside before assisting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/live\/ckgdwwzdxd8t\" class=\"ssrcss-13gq6qs-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Foster&#8217;s curling winner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Orlando Pirates winger started this game but could not muster another telling intervention during a tight first half, with Manchester City&#8217;s Omar Marmoush swinging a free-kick narrowly wide for Egypt after being brought down just outside the box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Salah&#8217;s goal and Hany&#8217;s dismissal set up a second half full of frayed nerves for the North Africans, who sent on Emam Ashour for Marmoush in a defensive change at the interval, and frustration for South Africa, who could have had a late penalty following a lengthy VAR check over Yasser Ibrahim&#8217;s handball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having initially awarded a free-kick outside the penalty area, Ndabihawenimana was  invited to check his decision on the monitor. While the referee agreed the contact was actually inside the box, he decided Ibrahim&#8217;s arm was in a natural position to break his fall as he slid in to make his block.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">South Africa&#8217;s substitutes were off their feet and holding their heads in their hands several more times during the closing stages, when Ngezana should have made a firmer connection with his headed opportunity from a corner and Evidence Makgopa and Modiba sent efforts wide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The result means Egypt are now favourites to top Group B while South Africa must avoid a slip-up against neighbours Zimbabwe to make sure of their place in the second round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There seemed little need for the officials to get involved when Salah went down after being touched on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-370738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}