Qatar Lose to Egypt in Friendly Match Ahead of Gulf Cup

Doha, December 29 (QNA) - Two goals from El-Sayed Hamdy and Mohamed Geddo were enough for Egypt to seal a 2-0 win over Qatar in Friday's charity friendly in Doha. Hamdy opened the score after 28 minutes as he seized a cross that the Qatari defense failed to clear, sending the ball into the right side of Qasem Burhan, who will blame himself for not doing better. the Maroon forward Sebastian Soria's clumsy reception of the ball four minutes earlier deprived the Qatari side from taking the lead as Soria was one-on-one with the Egyptian keeper Eassm El-Hadary. Egypt continued to dominate the remainder of the first half as Qatar stuck to the defense, depending on counterattacks. A fine exchange of ball 11 minutes into the second half combined with a skillful move from Egypt's Geddo gave the Pharaohs a deserved second goal, allowing them to dominate the most part of the time left. Khalfan Ibrahim came close to single-handedly pulling one for the hosts as he moved past Egyptian defenders but his weak strike was not to beat El-Hadary. The game was the main preparation for the Qatari national team ahead of the 21st Gulf Cup in Manama from January 5 to 18, while the Egyptian team, on the other side, are readying for World Cup Qualifiers game against Zimbabwe in March. The Maroons were pitted against Bahrain, Oman and the UAE, whom they face on the tournament's opening day. The income of today's friendly, which was held at Al Gharrafa club's Thani bin Jassim stadium, will go to families of the Port Said stadium massacre, which killed 72 supporters of Al-Ahly, and the victims of Assuit school bus crash, which claimed the lives of at least 50 schoolchildren. (QNA)