CAIRO: Egypt's World Cup hopes were 45 minutes away from being frustratingly on the edge, but the Pharaohs battled from a half-time deficit away versus Guinea to win 3-2. The victory, on the backs of Mohamed Aboutrika, who scored twice within 10 minutes in the second-half to give Egypt a 2-1, only to see the home side equalize late in the match before Egypt stunned fans with a final minutes goal to push the 7-time African continental champions one step closer to Brazil. Egypt now sits atop their group with 6 points, Guinea in second with three, while the bottom two nations, Mozambique and Zimbabwe played to a draw on Sunday to be level with each other on one point. But Egypt has the early advantage in the group, having played what appears to be their stiffest test in Guinea away. They now look prepared to press on with matches and have American coach Bob Bradley optimistic about the Pharaohs chances of reaching Brazil in 2012. Egypt has only played in two World Cup finals, the last being in 1990, and only barely missed out on South Africa in 2010, losing a play-off versus Algeria. Elsewhere in Africa, 7-time World Cup participants and African giants Cameroon were surprised by Libya in Tunisia, putting more pressure on the Indomitable Lions to qualify for Brazil.
