El-Badry confident Egypt can turn the corner

by Staff Reporter

Tuesday Nov 19, 2019. 11:00

Egypt coach Hossam El-Badry remains confident the side will qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations despite a lacklustre start to their qualification campaign.

The Pharaohs were held to a 0-0 draw in Comoros Islands on Monday, which followed a 1-1 stalemate with Kenya at home last week.

The side was without star forward Mo Salah through injury, but there still should have been enough firepower in the squad to claim at least one win, suggesting there are problems that need fixing in the group.

“Egypt will be among the qualified teams to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in the end,” El-Badry said after the draw in Comoros.

“We are facing tough circumstances in the latest period which caused this result. The national team are suffering from many tough situations, most notably the absence of a number of players.”

El-Badry has come in for some heavy criticism during his short tenure after he took over following the team’s second round exit from the Nations Cup finals they hosted this year.

His first two games resulted in 1-0 home friendly wins over Botswana and Liberia, where the performance on each occasion was also slammed.

“Some people attack me without any ideas, and say that everything was provided to the national team and that there are no problems, which is totally wrong. But I didn’t talk about it, not to justify the poor performance.”