Shawki Ghareeb congratulates the Egyptian fans after qualifying to Tokyo

Egyptian Olympic team coach Shawki Gharib congratulated the Egyptian people on his team's qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.




"Congratulations to Egypt and its people. Three months ago, 80,000 spectators left the Cairo stadium with great sadness after leaving the African Cup of Nations," Gharib said on youth and sports radio.

"To beat South Africa and qualify for the Olympics is an apology to the fans. I had no doubt about qualifying." he added.

"We are not afraid of any team. We played with a different plan in the second half, South Africa is the strongest collective defense team." He concluded.


Egypt thrashed South Africa 3-0 on Tuesday night at the Cairo in the U-23 AFCON semi-final.

Egypt qualified for the tournament Final for the first time in the history in its third edition after 2011 and 2015.

Egypt secured qualification for the Olympics for the 12th time in its history, a historical figure that has never reached any team in Africa as the nearest team to the Pharaohs is Ghana, who qualified only six times.

This will be the first qualification for the Pharaohs since the 2012 London Olympics.

The best position Egypt has achieved in the history of its participation in the Olympics is the fourth in the Tokyo Olympics as well as held in 1964.

The same achievement was achieved at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.

Ramadan Sobhi scored from the penalty spot in the 59th minute and Abdel Rahman Magdy in the 85th and 89th minutes.