The Egyptian national team's assistant coach Hani Ramzi supported Liverpool's winger Mohamed Salah after wasting two penalties during the 6-0 win over Niger in the 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifiers. In an action-packed affair at Alexandria's Borg El-Arab Stadium, Salah wasted two penalties, but scored from the rebound on one of them before completing a personal brace with five minutes remaining, thanks to a close-range header. "Salah is Egypt's first choice player to shoot penalty kicks, and the technical staff decided to allow the Liverpool winger to shoot the second kick despite wasting the first one," Ramzi told a television programme after the game late on Saturday. Egypt turned on the style in their first match under Javier Aguirre, recording a dominant 6-0 home win over Niger in a one-sided African Nations qualifier on Saturday that saw Liverpool's Mohamed Salah score twice. "We started the game with formation of (4-3-3), as we depended on defender Ali Ghazal to support the midfielders as well as playing an effective role in the defence area," Razi said. "After striker Marwan Mohsen was injured and Salah Mohsen came on as a substitute, we changed the formation to (4-2-3-1) to increase the participation of forward Amr Warda," he continued. Egypt jointly moved to the top of Group J with Tunisia with three points, but the Carthage Eagles could move three points ahead if they beat Swaziland on Sunday. The top two will qualify for next year's Nations Cup in Cameroon. "It was important to score a lot of goals to send a message to our opponents," Razi added. "The players performed well, but we have to be realistic as Niger was a poor team," the assistant coach concluded. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
