Egypt will begin a new journey to hunt for a place in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023, which will be held in Cote d’Ivoire.
The pharaohs strive to win their favourite title, having lost the title of the last edition of the tournament in Cameroon to Senegal on penalty kicks.
Cote d’Ivoire will host the competition for the second time in its history.
Egypt is scheduled to face Guinea tonight, at 9pm at Cairo International Stadium. This will be the first match in the qualifiers for the Egyptian team.
The match will also be the first official encounter for the national team under new coach, Ihab Galal, who has yet to prove his coaching skills.
Along with Guinea, Egypt has Ethiopia and Malawi in Group D of the qualifiers.
The other 44 national teams participating in the qualifiers are distributed to the remaining 11 groups.
The Egyptian national team began a closed camp last Monday.
The Pharaohs will play their second match outside Egypt, against Ethiopia on June 9.
Preparations by the team for the qualifiers will include a friendly match against South Korea in Tokyo, Japan, on June 14.
The camp is expected to come to an end on June 14.
The Egyptian team will play the third and fourth rounds of the qualifiers from 19 to 27 September 2022.
It will enter the fifth and sixth rounds from 20 to 28 March 2023.
The pharaohs are the record holders, having won seven AFCON titles so far. They were runners-up three times as well.
AFCON was launched in 1957. It is the most prominent tournament for Africa’s national football teams, bringing together the continent’s most prominent football stars.
Egypt won the first edition of the competition in 1957, having defeated Ethiopia 4-0. The tournament was held in Sudan.
The Egyptian Football Association has already obtained approval from the Interior Ministry for the attendance of 40,000 fans for the Egypt-Guinea match in Cairo.
Galal had earlier announced the list of players to participate in the camp held in preparation for the qualifiers.
These players include goalkeeper Mohamed el-Shennawy, defenders Omar Gaber, Mahmoud el-Wensh and Ahmed Hegazy, midfielders Mohannad Lashin and Mohamed Magdy Afsha, and forwards Mo Salah, Ahmed Sayed Zizo, and Omar Marmoush.
Mo Salah, second in the nation’s all-time top scorer’s list with 47 goals in 82 appearances, will face fellow Liverpool star Naby Keita of Guinea.
