Elneny and Salah put Egypt back on right road to Morocco

Reuters
Egypt's Mohammed ElNeni (L) and Omar Jaber (R) fight for the ball with Qatar's Khalfan Ibrahim (C) during their international friendly soccer match in Doha December 28, 2012. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad

GABORONE, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Egypt picked up their first points of the African Nations Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 victory in Botswana on Friday reviving their chances of playing in next year's finals in Morocco. Egypt, who have won a record seven Nations Cup titles but missed out on the last two finals, lost their opening two qualifiers to Senegal and Tunisia and bounced back by winning comfortably in Gaborone with goals from Mohamed Elneny and Mohamed Salah. Both scored in the second half after the visitors had rung the changes for the Group G tie. Swiss-based Elneny blasted home a long-range shot 10 minutes after the break and Chelsea's Salah made sure of the points in the 62nd. Botswana are bottom of the group at the halfway stage without any points while Egypt are three points behind Senegal and Tunisia. Egypt and Botswana meet again in Cairo on Wednesday.