MALI 2002 - The African Cup Of Nations XXIII
   The qualification - GROUP 7

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Group 7
A- Egypt, B- Côte d’Ivoire, C- Libya, D- Sudan
This is a real hot group. From paperform it is Egypt and Côte d'Ivoire but the story has some tricky turns in reserve. There are the ambitious Libyans who will put up enormous means to qualify. There are the elegant Sudan players which only lack some modern style football ingredients but have impressed in home matches recently. There might be some Ivorian inconsistency as the race for World Cup qualification might interfear and some people might become nervous. 
But much more of that: there is the old tough Libya Egypt rivalry.
And to add even more derby flair: Egypt and Sudan are neighbours as well as Sudan and Libya are. Apart from all political implications those are big local matches with a lot in them and very uneasy for Egypt as their neighbours will put everything into them.
 

> match facts and/or reports

> schedule, table and results of this group

Egypt - Côte d'Ivoire  1:0
> detailed match report on extra page
Libya - Sudan  1:0
> detailed match report on extra page
 

Sudan - Egypt  0:1 
1st half:
It seems not easy to play on this ground with the ball bouncing a lot. Egypt, concentrated and superior team, mantain their passing game anyway and have just scored ('23, Hossam Hassan).
Sudan ignite the crowd only a few times. Egypt, with more modern elements, have several opportunities to score.
2nd half:
A different game as Sudan is attacking with more energy and Egypt are drawn back. The Sudanese cause the Egyptian defence a lot of work but lack clear cut chances.
After 72 minutes a Sudanese player receives his second yellow card, a bit unclear for what. Sudan maintain the pressure anyway.
Egypt should have made it clear with one of the counter attacks but the match remained close and the Egyptian defenders had problems with the conspicious Sudanese attackers, especially #10.

Côte d'Ivoire - Libya 2:1
Scorers:  C. d’Ivoire: Bakayoko Ibrahim 17, Zephirin Zoko 87 
Libya: Ahmed Masli 8

Egypt - Libya  4:0
> detailed match report on extra page

Jan 20, 2001
Côte d'Ivoire - Sudan 2:0

Libya - Egypt  2:0
> detailed match report on extra page

Sudan - Côte d'Ivoire 0:0
> detailed match report on extra page

What promised to be one of the hottest groups, has been decided a weekend earlier and in favour of the established. Though the ambitious Libyans have made very important three points when beating Egypt at home, they fell behind when losing to the Ivorians at home. 
 

Libya - Côte d'Ivoire 0:3
> detailed match report on extra page

Egypt - Sudan 3:2 
-after the Libya-Côte d'Ivoire result Egypt need only one point to make qualification official
-1:0 ('19) Ahmed Hossam, 2:0 ('52) Ahmed Hossam, 3:0 ('58) Hosny, 3:1 Joseph, 3:2 penalty
-Egypt have qualified
 

week 6
Jun 15-17, 2001 

Côte d'Ivoire - Egypt  2:2
(0:1 Ahmed Salah '56, 1:1 Bakayoko pen. '70, 2:1 own goal '83, 2:2 Ibrahim Said '84)

Sudan - Libya 1:0