At Cairo International Stadium on Friday night, Egypt’s 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification game against Cape Verde ended in a 3-0 thumping.

The outcome gave the Pharaohs a commanding start to their qualifying campaign, and they will be hoping for more when they play Botswana on Tuesday in Francistown.

When the Blue Sharks play Mauritania on Tuesday in Praia, they will, on the other hand, be nursing their wounds from an embarrassing loss and determined to go back to winning ways.

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Rami Rabia’s header from Zizo’s cross from the right gave Egypt a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute, capping the Pharaohs’ dominance of the game from the outset.

After gaining the lead, the hosts didn’t let up and went into halftime leading 2-0 thanks to a goal from Omar Marmoush, who had been set up by Mostafa Mohamed in first-half stoppage time.

After the restart, Egypt kept applying pressure to the Blue Sharks defence, and in the 70th minute, Ibrahim Adel scored to make it 3-0 for the home team, leaving Cape Verde’s defence exposed.

In an attempt to salvage a point, the Blue Sharks made a late push, but the Pharaohs were adamant about maintaining a clean sheet, and Egypt ended up winning the game 3-0.

AFCON QUALIFIERS RESULTS, FRIDAY 6 SEPTEMBER

Kenya 0-0 Zimbabwe

DR Congo 1-0 Guinea

Sierra Leone 0-0 Chad

South Africa 2-2 Uganda

Togo 1-1 Liberia

Morocco 4-1 Gabon

Egypt 3-0 Cape Verde

Ivory Coast v Zambia

Mali 1-1 Mozambique

Senegal 1-1 Burkina Faso