The bitter memories of Egypt’s failure to reach the African Nations Cup earlier this year will hover over Borg El-Arab Stadium in Alexandria when they host Central Africa in their opening qualifier on Friday.

Defending champions Egypt, who made an unprecedented achievement after winning three Nations Cups on the trot in 2006, 2008 and 2010, stunningly missed out on the 2012 edition after enduring a disappointing qualifying campaign that eventually led to the departure of highly-successful boss Hassan Shehata.

The unthinkable outcome was mainly down to the dire consequences football has suffered following the 2011 January uprising, which forced former president Hosni Mubarak to step down but left the sport in a state of disarray.

Several months later, Shehata’s successor Bob Bradley finds himself in an even more problematic situation, with domestic football at a standstill following February’s Port Said tragedy which forced the cancellation of the Egyptian Premier League.

However, the team’s start to the World Cup qualifiers was very promising as they claimed two consecutive wins in Group G, kicking off their campaign with a 2-0 home win over Mozambique before snatching a thrilling 3-2 victory over Guinea away from home.

Egypt were initially scheduled to play Central Africa in February but the match was postponed at the Egyptian Football Association request following the Port Said disaster.

Friday’s game was brought forward two days to avoid a clash with Egypt’s anticipated presidential election runoff. The second leg will take place on 29 June in Bangui.

On paper, the seven-time African champions are expected to enjoy a smooth progress to the final round, where they should play another two-legged tie to reach next year’s Nations Cup finals in South Africa.

Central Africa are 45 places below Egypt in the FIFA world ranking but Bradley sounded a cautious note ahead of the game.

“It's not going to be easy. African football has developed enormously in the past few years and there's no big or small names anymore. We need a convincing win to feel safe before the return leg in a fortnight,” the former United States coach told the official website of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

“I know they are a good team and had a good campaign in the last edition of qualifiers where they had some good results against the likes of Morocco and Algeria.

“As I said before African football has developed a lot and there are no minnows on the continent anymore. I followed some games for Central African Republic and they're a respectable team.”

Bradley is likely to stick to the team which overcame Guinea in breathtaking fashion, thanks to the exploits of veteran playmaker Mohamed Abou-Treika who continues to defy critics with some superb displays.

Stars such as Amr Zaki, Emad Meteb and Mahmoud Abdel-Razek ‘Shikabala’ are still snubbed by the bald-headed boss, who has injected fresh blood into the team since his appointment in November last year.

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