Egypt give Gharib winning start with 2-0 victory over Bosnia

Hatem Maher, Wednesday 5 Mar 2014

Shawky Gharib starts his reign as Egypt coach with a 2-0 win over Bosnia in a friendly game on Wednesday

Mohamed Salah
Egypt's forward Mohamed Salah scored Egypt's second goal against Bosnia

Two second-half goals from Gedo and Mohamed Salah gave coach Shawky Gharib a winning start after they beat Bosnia 2-0 in a friendly game in Austria on Wednesday.

Gedo opened the scoring seven minutes after restart with a clinical finish before Chelsea's Salah ensured the win with a close-range effort as Egypt start a new phase under Gharib, who replaced Bob Bradley following the team's failure to qualify for this year's World Cup finals in Brazil.

Portugal-based defender Ali Ghazal, who plays for Nacional, and Ittihad El-Shorta striker Khaled Qamar made their Egypt debuts in a largely unfamiliar starting line-up for the Pharaohs as Gharib seeks to rebuild an underachieving side.

Ahly's promising forward Amr Gamal also made his first appearance after replacing club teammate Gedo in the second half.

Versatile midfielder Ahmed Fathi, who usually plays on the right, surprisingly started as a left-back. He was Egypt's liveliest performer in the first half, making some darting runs down the flank and wasting a couple of goal-scoring opportunities.

His free, left-foot volley from a tight angle went over the crossbar after 17 minutes and his curling right-foot shot from the edge of the area four minutes later narrowly missed the target.

Apart from a piledriver from Senad Lulic that went just over the bar, Bosnia's attempts were shy.

Gedo linked up well with Salah upfront while Qamar remained a peripheral figure after the break, drifting deep too often in search of the ball.

Egypt deservedly went ahead on 52 minutes when Salah neatly controlled a long ball and cut inside his marker in one move. The onrushing Gedo swiftly picked up the ball and broke clear to send a low shot into the bottom corner.

Both men combined again to double Egypt's lead 12 minutes later.

A mis-hit shot was diverted by Gedo into the path of the unmarked Salah, who slotted home from close range.

Veteran goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary, 41, made his first Egypt appearance in more than a year after coming on as a second-half substitute.

He pulled off a couple of fine saves towards the end as Egypt won in their first match since suffering a humiliating 7-3 aggregate defeat by Ghana in a two-legged World Cup qualifying playoff last year.

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