Afcon 2019: Mohamed Salah was too far from Egypt's strikers - Eto'o

Cameroon legend Samuel Eto’o has criticized Egypt’s performance in their Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) opener against Zimbabwe.

The host nation sealed a 1-0 win against the Warriors courtesy of a Mahmoud "Trezeguet" Hassan strike before half-time, but the African football icon was left unimpressed by the Pharaohs’ display on Friday night.

Eto’o was critical of the host nation’s lack of cohesion in attack and felt they overburdened star player Mohamed Salah.

“If Egypt keep performing this way they will suffer in the upcoming games,” Eto’o began.

“The Egyptian national team suffered, especially in attack, as Salah was always far from the strikers and that’s why he wasn’t very present during the game.

“Everyone was passing the ball to Salah; the team has to start playing as a unit which wasn’t the case.

“Marwan Mohsen also failed to perform very well because no one passed him the ball and that’s why he was struggling during the game,” he concluded.

Javier Aguirre’s side currently has three points after their opening group game and are second in Group A after Uganda defeated DR Congo 2-0 on Saturday.

The Pharaohs will face off with DR Congo and Uganda in their final two fixtures on June 26 and June 30 respectively.