The first round of group matches at the Africa Cup of Nations were completed today. We complained about the Euros not being particularly exciting. I hope for the African fans' sake, things get a bit better starting tomorrow. Today Ghana beat Uganda 1-0 with the goal coming from a penalty and Mali and Egypt drew 0-0.
Eight matches have been played, five were drawn. 1 and 0 have been very common numbers except in Group B where they've all gone goal crazy: Algeria drew 2-2 with Zimbabwe and Senegal beat Tunisia 2-0. I think the majority of the teams are trying to emulate Italy's group matches in World Cup 1982 on the way to winning that World Cup. Goals and wins were not many, if any.
But there are always stories. Egypt's reserve goalkeeper had to come on in the first half today to replace the injured starting goalkeeper. By doing so, Essam El-Hadary made history as the oldest player ever at an Afcon. The 44 year old was also making his 148th appearance for Egypt, but only had one save of note to make.
The best chance of the match fell to Egypt's Marwan Mohsen but his header was saved. The ball was crossed to Mohsen by Mahmoud 'Trezeguet' Hassan. He is very often simply known as Trezeguet because he apparently bears a striking resemblance to the former France and Juventus player. When the original Trezeguet was asked what he thought about the resemblance he said, "the hair is definitely not the same, and the playing position too.” He also said he will ask his father if he ever went to Egypt!
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