Egypt’s under-20 national team delivered another good performance on Wednesday to defeat Algeria 3-1 and advance to the final of the 2022 Arab Cup U-20, where they will face hosts Saudi Arabia. Udinese forward Salah Basha opened the scoring and Abdelrahman Rashdan doubled the lead before halftime before Mohamed Hamdi put the match away late on. Egypt will look to win the competition for the first time against Saudi Arabia, who defeated Palestine 5-0 in the other semifinal.
Basha got Egypt off to a dream start on nine minutes when a corner kick picked out center back Omar Fayed, whose header towards goal was deflected by an Algerian defender right to Basha for an easy finish from close range for his second goal of the competition. It appeared Algeria had a leveler before the half hour mark but offsides was called following a finish in the Egyptian penalty area.
Another set piece led to Egypt scoring their second when Maged Hany’s corner kick picked out Rashdan, who headed into an empty net after the Algerian goalkeeper came out and failed to get a touch to the ball. Lahlou Akhrib pulled on back for Algeria in the 69th minute but yet another corner kick restored the Young Pharaohs’ two-goal advantage when Hamdi was first to react and finish after an initial header came back off the post.
Highlights are below.
