Gharib blames poor defending and lack of consistency for Qatar defeat

Poor defending and individual mistakes caused Egypt defeat against Qatar according to Egypt technical staff

Egypt assistant coach Shawky Gharib has blamed his backline for the 2-1 defeat against Qatar in the friendly match held on Thursday in Doha.
“We have a lot of mistakes in defense and midfield that caused this loss. It is was very useful experience because it showed us our problems before resuming the African Cup of Nations (ACN) qualifiers,” Gharib told a press conference after the game.
Qatar hit Egypt on a counter attack to score the first goal through Sebastian Soria while Egypt's defender Wael Gomaa scored the second in his own nets passing the ball to his goalie Abdel-Wahed El Sayed who was out of his goal.
“It's just a friendly encounter and we still have a lot of games before the qualifiers to make things right,” he added.
The Pharaohs dominated the game - in term of possession - but lacked efficiency and creativity in the danger zone as they were only able to score a goal by substitute Walid Soliman.
“Some players aren't consistent in their performance and we'll need to reconsider our choices. But I have also to say that we lost our in-form striker Ahmed Abdel-Zaher just hours before the game,” Gharib concluded.
Coach Hassan Shehata started the game with a three-pronged attack including Mohamed Nagy “Gedo”, Ahmed Eid Abdel-Malek and Mohamed Abou-Treika but none of them was able to create a major and consistent threat on the hosts' keeper.
The Pharaohs will still play a friendly tournament in January and another encounter against USA in February ahead of their crucial ACN 2012 qualifier against South Africa in March 2011.