The All Whites opened the FIFA Series ACUD Cup with a narrow 1-0 defeat against hosts Egypt at the brand new New Administrative Capital Stadium in Cairo.

Darren Bazeley’s side featured three changes from the their last match, the 1-1 draw with Ireland in November, with Dane Ingham, Clayton Lewis and Max Mata coming in to replace the injured Joe Bell, Tim Payne and Chris Wood. 

In Wood’s absence Liberato Cacace captained the side for the first time from the start of a game, one of the youngest ever All Whites to wear the armband. 

 

New Zealand started strongly, controlling the game against the higher ranked Pharaohs with the All Whites high press a causing problems for the seven-time Africa Cup of Nations winners. 

Despite the All Whites early pressure, it was Egypt that took the lead in the 29th minute. 

Midfielder Emam Ashour was put through on goal but was tackled in the box by defender Nando Pijnaker. 

The referee initially saw no problem with the tackle but following a long period where Ashour stayed down in the box, met with mounting noise from the loud home crowd, was called over to review the play on VAR. 

Following VAR review the penalty was given and converted by Mostafa Mohamed to give the home side the lead. 

From the restart the All Whites nearly immediately equalised after Cacace found himself in space after some neat interplay with Sarpreet Singh. 

Cacace’s cross found the head of Max Mata but the forward’s header went narrowly over the bar. 

Despite the All Whites continuing to have the better of the chances it remained 1-0 to Egypt at the break.

The second half continued where the first left off and on 60 minutes the All Whites had another great chance to equalise. 

Singh and Cacace again combined well to find Max Mata but Egyptian keeper Abou Gabel smothered the shot to keep his clean sheet in tact. 

9 minutes later the All Whites had their best chance of the game after Sarpreet Singh was fouled just outside the box to win a freekick.

Singh’s powerful left footed shot fired over the wall towards the top left corner but rattled off the crossbar.

Head coach Darren Bazeley made changes bringing on Ben Waine (for Callum McCowatt) and Ben Old (for Max Mata) in the 70th minute, Tyler Bindon (for Dane Ingham) and Kosta Barbarouses (for Matt Garbett) in the 81st minute and finally Eli Just (for Clayton Lewis) in the 86th minute but the despite arguably being the better side they were unable to find an equaliser.

Egypt held on for the victory while the All Whites will play the loser of Croatia vs Tunisia in the Third Place Play-Off on Wednesday at 9am NZT (Tuesday at 10pm local time). 

After the game head coach Darren Bazeley reflected on his side’s performance:

“I thought we played well in parts. We are obviously very disappointed to have lost the game. 

“We came here wanting to build on the Republic of Ireland performance last time and there were moments in the game where I thought we played some good football, we got in some good areas and created some pretty good chances and just didn't have that final moment where we could put the ball in the back of the net which is something that we've worked on.

“We know the evolution of this team is to perform like some of the moments we had but to actually start to win games and score goals.”

Article added: Saturday 23 March 2024