For the first time in their history, Egypt have reached the semi-finals of the men's Olympic football tournament after they defeated Paraguay 5-4 in a penalty shootout.
In 11 previous attempts, the Egyptians made it to the last eight on four occasions, most recently at London 2012 and nine years later at Tokyo 2020, which was held in 2021.
All of them, however, ended in defeat.
That changes at Paris 2024, with an emphatic last-eight victory over Paraguay to reach the semi-finals of the competition.
Just when it looked as though the quarter-final curse was taking shape once more, Zizo's teasing cross into the box was nodded home by the undetected Ibrahim Adel with mere minutes left on the clock.
Egypt were given a lifeline.
With a further 30 minutes of extra time not providing a breakthrough, it came down to the lottery of penalties.
A steely display from the North African side, including heroics from goalkeeper Hamza Alaa, secured safe passage into uncharted territory for this young side with a shootout win of 5-4.
They will face France in the semi-final at 7am Tuesday.
In other quarter final results, host France beat Argentina 1-0, Spain defeated Japan 3-0, and Morroco beat the USA 4-0.
The semi finals will start at 4am Tuesday, and the gold-medal match will be held at 4am next Saturday.
Source : Olympics.com
