Trezeguet stunner hands Egypt winner in AFCON opener

Egypt welcomed Zimbabwe in the opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations, and with the African side surely one of the favourites to win an 8th AFCON title, this seemed a formality.

The stadium was full three hours before the game began, with the Egyptians incredibly passionate and believing that victory in this competition could well be theirs for the taking.

Mo Salah was always going to be the main man on show in this game and after just 2 minutes he was causing major issues, with his cross forcing an excellent save from Edmore Sibanda in the Zimbabwe net.

The game began in very open fashion, with the Egyptians looking the more dangerous of the two sides, Salah creating two good opportunites for El Said that he couldn't convert.

In fact Salah was in his devastating best form, with Zimbabwean defenders flying in desperation to stop the Liverpool winger.

Zimbabwe did actually have the best chance of the first half however, with Billiat being played through and El Shenawy making a superb save to deny Zimbabwe a shock lead.

At least, that was the best chance until Mahmoud Trezeguet got the ball on the left hand side, cut inside and hit home into the bottom right corner, Egypt finally had their deserved lead.

They went in ahead at half time, and the atmosphere appeared much more relaxed as a result.

The opening moments of the second half were not in the same category of excitement as the first, with Trezeguet having a similar chance to his goal that was deflected past the right hand upright.

It appeared that the heat affected the players more than they could have imagined.

Chances proved hard to come by in the second half and Egypt seemed content to take what they already had as the tireless Zimbabwe forwards continued to press. 

In fact in the dying minutes they had two superb chances, with substitute forward Rusike blasting one over the bar before Billiat had a good volleyed chance just minutes later. 

For Egypt this was a solid start, and an important 3 points. For Zimbabwe, they showed glimpses of what they're about and will be looking to qualify from the competition for sure.