Why Egypt lost AFCON 2017?

It was a devastating experience for Cuper to lose legendary players like Mohamed Elneny and Mohamed Abdel-Shafy, who had no choice but to put more pressure on Ahmed Fathi. Even Fathi’s fitness dropped abruptly against Cameroon.

One of the primary reasons includes the loss of players, who could have saved Cuper from losing the Afcon 2017. These players include Moamen Zakaria, Basem Morsi, Hossam Salama, and Mohamed Nasef. The poor squad choices wrecked Egypt’s hopes and resulted in surrendering against Cameroon.

The Pharaohs were negatively affected after they played four games in the Port-Gentil stadium. As they had to put an extraordinary effort to play on the weak ground of the Gabonese stadium.

Cuper had to be dependent on players who were not strong enough and incapable compared to Cameroonian defenders. This situation arose with the absence of a robust player Mahmoud Kahraba, due to which Cuper had to rely on Amr Warda, who was not that strong.

Despite being one goal down, there was no proper attacking strategy witnessed by anyone. It was one of the reasons they failed to build a proper attack against Cameroon and could not do anything even when they were running behind the score. (See How long does the average football game last?)

Despite being a magnificent player and a mstermind’Abdallah Said’ became a liability in the finals. It was because of his physical injury when he played against Cameroon and Burkina Faso. They failed to provide the proper replacement of Abdallah Said.

The gap between Cameroon’s mid and defense lines was left unused in the second half when Abdallah Said and Tarek Ahmed were drained of all energy. (See The 15 Most Successful Football Clubs in Africa)