GABORONE: Egypt picked up their first points of the African Nations Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 victory in Botswana on Friday reviving their chances of playing in next year’s finals in Morocco.

Egypt, who have won a record seven Nations Cup titles but missed out on the last two finals, lost their opening two qualifiers to Senegal and Tunisia and bounced back by winning comfortably in Gaborone with goals from Mohamed Elneny and Mohamed Salah.

Both scored in the second half after the visitors had rung the changes for the Group ‘G’ tie.

Swiss-based Elneny blasted home a long-range shot 10 minutes after the break and Chelsea’s Salah made sure of the points in the 62nd.

Botswana are bottom of the group at the halfway stage without any points while Egypt are four points behind Senegal and Tunisia.

Senegal and Tunisia fought a dour 0-0 draw in Dakar to continue sharing the group lead with seven points each and pointless Botswana appear out of contention.

The top two teams in each of the seven groups qualify and there will also be a place in Morocco for the best third-place country.

Egypt and Botswana meet again in Cairo on Wednesday.

Lesotho and Angola drew 0-0 in a mediocre Maseru match — a result that did the Group ‘C’ chances of both teams little good.

Burkina Faso, runners-up to Nigeria in the 2013 Cup of Nations, top the table with six points followed by Gabon with four, Lesotho two and Angola one.

Published in Dawn, October 12th , 2014