Somaliland national deaf football team have been beaten 1-10 by Egypt in their Group D clash of the Africa Deaflympics qualifiers in Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday.
The match played at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani saw the North Africans lead 4-0 at the breather.
The well-oiled Egyptians demonstrated their early desire to explode in the lopsided Group D Sunday fixture with Mohamed Elmallahy making a hatrick in the 24th, 40th, and 80th minutes.
Mohamoud Abdelrehim and Ibrahim Abdelsalam notched a double each in the second and 91st and 27th and 47th minutes.
Other scorers for the North Africans were Gamal Elsayed (57th), Hassan Abdelkader (84th), and Masoud Elmasry (92nd).
Abdiqani Ahmed scored a consolation #goal for #Somaliland in the 65th against #Egypt in their group D clash of the #AfricaDeaflympics #qualifiers in #Nairobi, #Kenya on Sunday, Somaliland has been beaten 10-1 by the #NorthAfricans pic.twitter.com/GDRUJzIe6C
— Saxafi Media (@Saxafi) September 13, 2021
While Somaliland’s only consolation goal in the Africa Deaflympics match came in through Abdiqani Ahmed in the 65th minute.
Somaliland, who were drawn in pool “D” together with Egypt and Gabon will play their second match against Gabon on Thursday after Egypt and Gabon face each other on Tuesday.
Egypt Coach Shawcat Ahmed Elnagar through the help of an interpreter described the win as emphatic but candidly admitted: “it’s still early days.”
“We created several chances and converted them. Our opponents also had their fair share of chances which they failed to convert. But all in all, it’s still early days as we have very tough teams to worry about. The essence, for now, is to go past the group stage, so I’m totally chuffed for a good start.” Elnagar said.
His Somaliland counterpart Mohammed Mahmoud conceded defeat saying they had lost to a better side.
“Egyptians have always played well in deaf football. But our boys put up a great show by our standards and being our first time in Kenya, it was only going to be a great learning experience, I believe we have a lot of catching up to do. We lost to a very experienced team but we hope to keep improving,” Mahmoud said.
The 12 team soccer tournament will culminate with the winner clinching a slot to represent Africa at the 24th edition of the Deaflympics scheduled for December in Brazil.
