Egypt kicked-off their African Cup qualifiers with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Burundi in Cairo on Saturday. The African champions went to the locker room with a three-goal lead thanks to efforts from Mohamed Zidan, Hosni Abd-Rabou and Mohamed Abou-Treika. Egypt captain and Anderlecht playmaker Ahmed Hassan completed the rout after the break with a trademark penalty-kick. Soliman scored the consolation goal for the visitors from the spot in the 78th minute. Egypt now top Group B with three points before Botswana play Mauritania in the group's second tie. Egypt's players and coaching staff wore black armbands in grief over the death of Ahli's international left-back Mohamed Abdul-Wahab who died in training on Thursday.
Egypt's coaching staff observing a moment of silence The hosts staged a bold attacking performance against Burundi in the first-half and managed to break the deadlock as early as the fifth minute after a quick combination between Hassan and Zidan. Bremen's Zidan received Hassan's quickly-taken free-kick before sidestepping a defender inside the area and firing home. This was Zidan's first goal with the Egyptian national team. Ismaili midfielder Abd-Rabou doubled the lead in the 29th minute when his deflected free-kick eluded the goalkeeper and settled into the back of the net. In the 39th minute, Abou-Treika controlled an inch-perfect cross from Ahmed Fathi before darting the ball past the advancing keeper. Hassan, who put on the number 3 shirt of Abdul-Wahab, widened the gap seven minutes into the second period when he pinned a low penalty into the left corner of the net. Strasbourg left-back Ahmed Abou-Mosallam stepped over Soliman in the area and the player executed the resulted penalty past goalkeeper Essam Al-Hadari to give his side some respectability.
