Focused! Egypt and Premier League star ready for Bafana Bafana in high-stakes AFCON clash after hard-fought victory over Zimbabwe

Africa Cup of Nations fans will be treated to a high-stakes encounter between South Africa and Egypt on Friday.

Both are tied on stats after one game each: three points and a similar goal difference, meaning they will meet in their next game as equals.

Omar Marmoush, who scored the equalising goal against Zimbabwe on Monday, is now focused on their next game against Bafana. Liverpool star Mohamed Salah struck late to ensure the Pharaohs opened their AFCON campaign with a 2-1 victory.

Earlier, South Africa had managed a 2-1 victory over Angola, with Oswin Appollis and Lyle Foster the heroes for the 1996 AFCON champions.

“The win [Man of the Match award] is more important than the prize," the Manchester City star said after the match, as per Ahram Online.

“We will now focus on the match against South Africa,” he added.

Meanwhile, Lyle Foster also downplayed his Man of the Match award and decided to celebrate Bafana's hard-fought win over Angola. His focus, just like Marmoush's, is on the Friday game.

“It’s a nice trophy [MOTM award], but most importantly, we needed the three points today,” he said in his post-match interview on SABC Sport.

“Tough first half. I think we started the game well; afterwards, we grew into it. So, we had to be very hard at halftime to be honest with ourselves.

“[In the] second half, we came out; I think we showed a different team, and we got the winning goal. Thank God. Happy now? Now we move on to the next one.”

Although Hugo Broos is happy that Bafana won the game against Angola, he was not happy that his players sometimes 'fall asleep'.

"As I have said before the game, losing your first game puts you in trouble, so we tried to avoid it. We started very well in the game; we played well, we scored a goal, and then, I don't know for which reasons, sometimes we fell asleep," Broos said.

"And Angola was coming into the game; they were dangerous, better combinations. We suffered because there was no aggression anymore; there was no passion in the team.

"We played very slowly, and you felt that there would be a goal for the opponent, and the goal was there. We didn't find our usual game, so we put some things right."

The Belgian was happy with the introduction of Orlando Pirates star Tshepang Moremi.

"During halftime, I think Moremi gave us good service, played well, was quick, and was a threat to the Angola defence. And that changed a lot; we were also more aggressive," he said.

"We put more pressure on the opponent. We had some changes to the goal of Moremi, but okay, it was offside. I saw it after the game. And that shot of [Mbekezeli] Mbokazi, and then you are thinking it will not happen today. But then we had that fantastic goal from Lyle [Foster]."

"We are very happy with the victory, and now we can look forward to the game with Egypt on Friday. In other circumstances, we could've lost points." 

Although Angola lost, their head coach, Patrice Beaumelle, chose to pick positives from the encounter.

“We knew that facing Bafana Bafana would be difficult. Perhaps some people thought it would be an easy game for Bafana Bafana, but I think we played a strong game. It wasn’t easy, and we had some chances to score as well,” he said, per Foot Africa.

“The statistics keep coming; congratulations to Bafana Bafana. As I said, the statistics against Angola keep coming, but there is also another statistic — 27 games without a single defeat — so congratulations."

The win over Angola ended South Africa's losing streak in AFCON opening games, a record that had stretched for 21 years.