Sporting flop scores v Ivory Coast, helps eliminate Diomande from AFCON | OneFootball

Egypt defeated Ivory Coast 3-2 and will face Senegal in the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2025), currently taking place in Morocco. This is good news for Sporting, who will be able to count on Ousmane Diomande again, as he was not used in the match. On the other hand, Rami Rabia, former central defender for the Lions, scored one of the goals.

The match initially seemed easy for the Pharaohs, who took the lead just 4 minutes in, with Marmoush, set up by Ashour, standing out on the left and beating Fofana with a shot from the edge of the box. The Egyptians doubled their lead in the 32nd minute, with Rami Rabia scoring with a header at the far post after a corner from Mohamed Salah.

Ivory Coast got back into the game in the 40th minute when, following a corner, Fatouh deflected the ball into his own net. Early in the second half, in the 52nd minute, Salah restored Egypt’s two-goal advantage after a cross from Ashour on the left. The ‘Elephants’ didn’t give up and reduced the deficit to just one goal in the 73rd minute, with a goal from Guéla Doué.

There were still more than fifteen minutes left to play, but Egypt held on to their narrow lead until the final whistle and will now meet Senegal in one of the AFCON 2025 semi-finals. The other semi-final, as already known, will see Nigeria face hosts Morocco.

It’s worth remembering that Rami Rabia had a discreet spell at Sporting in 2014/15. Signed from Al Ahly for 750,000 euros, the centre-back played 21 games for the green and white B team in the Segunda Liga that season, and was only selected for the main squad in three matches, all in the League Cup. The player has already admitted to regretting leaving the Alvalade club.

Watch Rami Rabia’s goal:

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.