Egypt Striker Emad Moteab Fires Warning Shot Ahead Of Algeria Showdown

Egypt need to win by a three-goal margin against Algeria to qualify for next year's World Cup and Emad Moteab could well be the man to get the goals after he provided a brace and an assist as the African champions romped past Tanzania in a warm-up game.

Moteab showed he has fully recovered from a serious knee injury when he posted a sublime performance as the Pharaohs thrashed Tanzania 5-1 in Aswan on Thursday ahead of the all-important World Cup tie against regional rivals Algeria.

Moteab connected with a cross from left-back Sayed Moawad to head home and open the scoring after eight minutes. A pull-back from Ahmed Al-Muhammadi ensured he was again on target on 33 minutes.

"Moteab's performance was one of our benefits from this game," assistant coach Shawki Gharib told Nile Sports.

"He needed to score to boost his morale ahead of the Algeria clash."

Moteab, who also set up Mohamed Barakat for Egypt's fourth goal, is up against Borussia Dortmund striker Mohamed Zidan for a place alongside Zaki against Algeria.

Gharib said he believes the six-time African champions, who are bidding to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1990, benefited from playing against Tanzania despite facing little opposition from the East Africans.

"Regardless of the calibre of our opponent, we did what we wanted to do," he said.

"The players played well and followed our instructions. We also had a chance to field many substitutes to make everything clear to coach Hassan Shehata before the Algeria tie."

Egypt need to beat Algeria by a three-goal margin at Cairo Stadium on November 14 to qualify directly for the World Cup.

A win by a two-goal margin will set up a play-off with the North Africans at a neutral venue to be decided by FIFA.

Samm Audu, Goal.com