Egypt's goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary is confident about his team’s capacity to overcome their rival Central Africa at the end of this month. The Pharaohs will meet Central Africa in Bangui on the second leg of the first round of the 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

"We are capable of overcoming Central Africa and continuing our mission in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers,'' El-Hadary told Ahram Online on Thursday. Egypt are in an uphill struggle to reach next year's African Cup of Nations in South Africa. They will have to overturn a 3-2 home first leg deficit when they face Central Africa in Bangui on 30 June. "The first leg revealed several errors in the team's performance especially in the defence and the Pharaohs’ technical staff concentrated during the trainings to remedy those mistakes."

The Pharaohs' skipper defended coach Bob Bradley despite the team's poor performance in the first leg, adding that Bradley worked in very difficult circumstances and through the cancellation of the Egyptian league and the instability that reins in the country. The three-time best goalkeeper in Africa denounced the opinions which suggested the dismissal of Bradley from his post as the Pharaohs’ coach if he failed to qualify for the final phase of the continental qualifiers.

''Bradley is a very good coach and he did his best with the team but he worked in difficult circumstances and he succeeded to collect six points on the World Cup qualifiers. It would be naive to dismiss him after the first defeat.''

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