{"id":15727,"date":"2026-01-06T21:49:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=15727"},"modified":"2026-01-06T21:49:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:49:03","slug":"egypt-underdogs-at-afcon-but-will-keep-fighting-salah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=15727","title":{"rendered":"Egypt Underdogs at AFCON, But Will Keep Fighting \u2013 Salah&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" src=\"https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2026\/01\/G97C7yhWAAEsqLe-696x464-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2026\/01\/G97C7yhWAAEsqLe-696x464-1.jpg 696w, https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2026\/01\/G97C7yhWAAEsqLe-696x464-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Egypt forward Mohamed Salah said his team was not among the favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations title, but insisted they would give their best to go deeper in the tournament in Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liverpool forward Salah scored the third goal to secure Egypt\u2019s spot in the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 3-1 extra-time victory over Benin on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hossam Hassan\u2019s side are bidding to win the title for the first time since 2010 and a record eight times overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think we are a favourite at all (to win the title)\u201d, Salah told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have young players, and most of them play in Egypt. We just fight for our country\u2026 but everybody gives their best and you could see today\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 33-year-old said there were no easy games in AFCON.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe level is quite similar, I told the team yesterday that no side loses by four or five goals. (Benin) have a good team and a good coach\u2026 I\u2019m glad we managed to win in the end\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salah has scored 10 goals in 22 AFCON games, two fewer than Hassan El-Shazly, Egypt\u2019s all-time top scorer in the tournament, and one fewer than his current coach, Hassan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Egypt will face defending champions Ivory Coast or Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals in Agadir on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egypt forward Mohamed Salah said his team was not among the favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations title, but insisted they would give [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15729,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727\/revisions\/15729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}