African pride at stake for Egypt

African pride is at stake for Egypt who take on world champions Italy in Group B of the FIFA Confederations Cup after nearly pulling off a shock result against Brazil.

The Egyptians were unfortunate not to take at least a point off the defending champions in their opening Group B match, with a controversial last-minute penalty by Real Madrid's Kaka crushing their hopes in a 4-3 defeat.

But Egypt's second-half performance, in particular, was encouraging enough to suggest they can cause big problems for Italy. Their Borussia Dortmund striker Mohamed Zidan, who scored twice against Brazil and was voted man-of-the-match, said it was important to demonstrate to the world that Africa has credible football teams.

"We wanted to have a decent game against Brazil and show the world African football is good enough to compete with the very best teams," said the striker. "I think we showed everyone that we have fighting spirit and in my opinion we deserved to earn a point. We hope to do better against Italy."