Homos hits winner as Egypt stun Italy

MOHAMED HOMOS scored the only goal as Egypt claimed a memorable Confederations Cup victory over Italy in Johannesburg last night.

The Pharaohs, who came into the game needing to avoid defeat to retain hopes of making the semi-finals, looked lively throughout and were rewarded with a 40th-minute strike from the Ismaily midfielder.

They then had stand-in captain and goalkeeper Essam El Hadary to thank after he produced a string of fine saves to help them hold on for all three points in Group B.

Both sides made a cautious start to the game at the Ellis Park Stadium preferring to pass the ball around, before Gianluca Zambrotta had seen enough in the seventh minute and fired in the first shot from distance, which was dragged wide.

At the other end Egypt also looked threatening with Mohamed Zidan and Mohamed Aboutrika combining nicely to set up Mohamed Shawky, but he scuffed his close-range shot with Gianluigi Buffon clearing the danger.

From the resulting Aboutrika corner, though, Homos rose nicely to head his side in front.

Marcello Lippi opted to keep things the same at half-time, but his side stillstruggled in front of goal.

Andrea Pirlo almost found the equaliser in the 63rd minute when he curled his 25-yard free-kick narrowly wide, before Simone Pepe’s whipped cross from the right bounced agonisingly across the face of goal with Iaquinta and Toni lurking.

The world champions continued to pour forward with the Juventus striker and Montolivo drawing excellent close-range saves from the inspired El Hadary as the Egyptians looked to sit on their one-goal lead.

One of the best saves of the night came in the 78th minute when Iaquinta looked certain to score with a well-directed header at the near post only for the Sion goalkeeper, who was going in the opposite direction, to somehow get a hand on the ball.

El Hadary then almost made a costly error when he misjudged an attempted cross from Iaquinta that hit the bar, but the African champions held on.

EGYPT: El Hadari, Said, Fathi (Hassan 81), Said Ahmed, Gomaa, Moawad (Farag 70), Shawky, Homos, Abd Rabou, Aboutreika, Zidan (Eid 58).

ITALY: Buffon, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso, De Rossi, Gattuso (Montolivo 59), Pirlo, Quagliarella (Pepe 66), Rossi (Toni 59), Iaquinta.