Cairo Stadium-Ahmad Saied & Ahmed Maher: Egypt assistant coach Shawki Gharib insisted that the fans' enthusiasm and support for the team were the main reasons behind their qualification to the African Cup of Nations (ACN) quarter-finals. “It was a tough and highly technical match for both sides and both coaches, we proved that we deserved to top the Group A standings,” Gharib told reporters after the match on Saturday. Egypt gave Ivory coast a 3-1 beating in their Group A final-round match on Saturday and qualified to the quarter-finals after topping the chart with seven points. Gharib also requested that the local media would stop interfering in the coaching staff's decisions and to respect their views whatever they are. “We have 23 players, and we use them accordingly, I would like to ask the local media to stop misguiding people and distracting the coaching staff by announcing inaccurate squad lists,” Gharib said. Asked about replacing Mido with veteran striker Hossam Hassan, Gharib said: “Mido picked up a serious injury and Hossam did what we expected him to do exactly.” On the other hand, Ivory Coast boss Henri Michel attributed their loss to the players' below-par performance in the second-half of the game. Michel also defended his decision not to field Didier Drogba in addition to a number of other key players and said that he benched them given that they were booked in their earlier matches and said that he also wanted to assess all his other players. “Jean-Jacques Tizie's injury was a direct blow for us, especially since Boubacer Barry conceded a goal after being fielded immediately,” Michel said. The Frenchmen concluded by saying that having to face all the teams they played against in their 2006 World Cup qualifiers before was the biggest issue troubling him. Mido to recover in time for quarter -finals
