Egypt advanced to the World Cup qualifiers' final phase as Group 12 winners after crushing Djibouti 4-0 at Military Academy on Sunday. The six-time African champions went to the lockers room with a slender lead, thanks to Emad Meteb's goal. Two second-half strikes from Ahmed Hassan and Mohamed Abou-Treika in addition to Riad Saied's own goal in stoppage time gave Egypt an easy win. Egypt finished the qualifiers' second round on top of their group with 15 points, three ahead of second-placed Malawi, who advanced as one of the eight best second-placed teams. The Pharaohs will be top seeded in the last phase draw that will be held on October 22nd. Egypt coach Hassan Shehata played with an unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation. He usually uses that strategy when his side face unfancied opponents. The hosts, who had a relaxed approach, enjoyed an easy ride and found no difficulty in brushing aside Djibouti. Masri's left-back Ahmed Shedid made his Egypt debut but failed to impress. He was repeatedly dispossessed down the left flank. Egypt had a couple of decent efforts early in the game through Hassan and Ahmed Eid, who was given a rare start due to the injury of striking duo Amr Zaki and Mido. Meteb should have put Egypt in front after 16 minutes when he was found unmarked by Eid's inch-perfect cross but he headed poorly wide from close range. The Ittihad Jeddah striker made amends just two minutes later to break the deadlock. He rose above two markers to head Mohamed Abou-Treika's corner into the back of the net. It was his 23rd goal in 50 international appearances. Ahli midfielder Hassan doubled Egypt's advantage five minutes after the restart. He chested a superb long ball to go clear on goal before firing home past the Djibouti keeper, who got a hand to the shot. Abou-Treika coolly chipped the advancing keeper in the 66th minute to make it 3-0. Harras Al-Hodoud striker Ahmed Abdul-Ghani was introduced afterwards and he made a fine impact. He was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet on two occasions. Deep into stoppage time, Djibouti's Saied diverted Hassan's low cross into his own net to make matters worse for Djibouti, who failed to collect a single point in the qualifiers.
