Egypt striker Mohamed Zidan felt that his team's emphatic win over Italy took place on home soil, thanks to the great support the Pharaohs got from the spectators at the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg. A first-half header from midfielder Mohamed Hommos handed Egypt a historic 1-0 victory over the world champions in Thursday's FIFA Confederations Cup showdown. Like in their previous match against Brazil, the Egyptians were egged on by a large number of fans, and numerous Egyptian supporters were spotted in the stands. "What happened today gives us a great feeling," Zidan told FIFA's official website. "It was a fantastic victory and makes us very proud. "I think the way the crowd got behind us was excellent and it motivated us a lot towards the end. "It was great and almost a feeling like playing at home in Egypt. I think we had a very good experience with the atmosphere today." Hardest Group Egypt put up an uphill fight in their 4-3 loss to Brazil on Monday, and thus the Azzurri didn't take them lightly, Zidan believes. "We knew that Italy would prepare well after seeing the way we played against Brazil," the Borussia Dortmund forward elaborated. "We just said that we will try much better than we did against Brazil, try and cut out the same mistakes and it worked very well for us.
Egypt while celebrating "Our group was the hardest group, but we are doing well as African champions, which is good." Standing Together Egypt are yet to build on their outstanding displays in the Confederations Cup to revive their dented hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Hassan Shehata's team were held at home to a 1-1 draw with Zambia in their first qualifier, and staggeringly lost 3-1 to Algeria afterwards. Zidan realizes that his country's qualification campaign is close to failure, but thinks Egypt still have a chance of booking a berth in the quadrennial competition. "I think we had a hard time during the last two games of qualification. It wasn't as good as we expected. But then we realised that we have to improve a lot if want to be at the World Cup," he stated. "The team is very good at standing together when we spend a long time at a training camp. "By this I mean, when we stay together for a long time, we then play much better than if we were only together for five or six days. "This is like what we did together at the Nations Cup the last two times in Egypt and in Ghana and now we're seeing the same thing in South Africa here. "We are having enough time to prepare well for the games and the coaching staff are also having time to prepare the players." Egypt lie bottom in the qualifying stage Group C on a sole point, and their upcoming qualifier will be against Rwanda on July 5th.
