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Egypt advances to the World Cup finals in 28 years

Posted October. 10, 2017 08:10,   

Updated October. 10, 2017 09:26

한국어

Egypt has advanced to the World Cup finals in 28 years. The third qualifying rounds for the African countries, Group E’s fifth game for 2018 Russia World Cup took place Monday as a home game at Borg El Arab Stadium, and Egypt defeated Congo by 2 to 1, as Mohamed Salah succeeded in scoring the penalty kick during the extra minutes in the second half. As a result, Egypt achieved four wins and one loss (total of 12 winning points), outdistancing Uganda (eight winning points), the team with the second highest points in the Group, by four points, which confirm‎s Egypt’s advancement to the finals of the 2018 World Cup regardless of the result of one last remaining game.

Although Egypt has been the most powerful team in Africa, winning seven victories in a row in the Africa Cup of Nations, which is the most wins in the Cup, the team was never lucky for the World Cup. Egypt advanced to the finals only for the two times— the 1934 World Cup in Mexico and the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Sky Sports, a sports media of England, reported about the suffering of Egypt's national-team manager Hector Cuper, catching the people’s attention. “I’m taking medication for high blood pressure. It’s because I’m stressed from the continuing criticism,” he said, revealing what he had felt during the whole time. “Life is filled with stress. But trying to advance to the finals of World Cup was the worst stress I went through.”



Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com