Missed opportunities haunt Raymond Mdaka as Egypt claims the win

Amajita hit the woodwork three times in this game and had the lion’s share of the ball possession but still ended on the losing side. Mdaka was left to rue the missed chances.

“What a difficult game, I think they did their best and we also did our best obviously it wouldn’t be as simple as that. From the look of things, we were just unlucky in a number of times, we hit the ball post maybe three times, we couldn’t finish,” Mdaka said.

“Well done to Egypt, we always think like that in football because it’s their home game but actually I wouldn’t say that was an impact that must have made us not win. Had we converted the chances that we got, we wouldn’t say anything about the fans but obviously as the hosts and the crowd behind them but we can’t hide behind the crowd and saying it’s because they are playing at home.

“We were able to match them pound for pound. We created our own chances some that we did not take. So, we can’t blame the supporters.”

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With Group A, the only group with five teams, Amajita will now have to get better results against Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Zambia in their next three matches to advance to the quarterfinals.

The team travels to Ismaila today, where they will face Tanzania on Wednesday, and Mdaka still feels strongly about coming out of this group.

“Yeah, we are in a group where we have to play four matches because the teams are more in numbers but then we still have a lot to play for. So, we haven’t given up to say we can’t make it because we lost the first game,” he added.

“We wanted to win the first game yes but we still have three more games to play and that is is equals to nine points, so we’re still there in the tournament.”