If you were a betting man at you decided to take out a bet at the beginning of the tournament, you would have found all the money was being placed on Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, you would have been wise to look further down the form book in the direction of Egypt.

The Pharaohs as the Egyptian team is not unsurprisingly known have shown that they are not here to make up the numbers when they announced their arrival at the tournament with a 4-2 trouncing of Cameroon in their opening match.

That was then this is now and against Cote D’Ivoire Egypt was expected to put up a good fight but eventually capitulate to the Ivoriens, unfortunately no one had told the Egyptians. Their victory is a testament to the tactical genius of the Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata, the man who led Egypt to victory in the Last Cup of Nations Cup and looking to prove he can do it away from home.

The signs came early when Ahmed Fahty latches on to corner kick and his low fiercely driven shot zipped through the Ivorien defence and past Boubacar Barry in the Ivorien goal. With only 12 minutes in Egypt were 1-0 up. The onus was now on the Ivoriens to push for an equaliser with Egypt’s compact formation of three defenders and five in the midfield this proved a tough assignment for the Ivoriens.

Cote d’Ivoire did come close when on the 24th minute when Didier Drogba latched onto a Arthur Boka cross with clear sight on goal but was rapidly surrounded by the Egyptian defence which snuffed out the chance. On the stroke of half time Drogba was again found in the Egyptian half but his point blank header was stopped by Egypt’s man of the match goalkeeper Essam Al Hadari.

The earlier part of the second half again saw Drogba latching onto a cross and again his point blank header was saved El Hadari. El Hadari was proving to be an impregnable wall against attempts by Cote d’Ivoire to equalize. As Cote d’Ivoire pushed for an equalizer they became increasingly vulnerable to a counter attack and on the 62nd minute Amr Zaki proved why when broke free to send Egypt 2-0 ahead.

The second goal seemed to rouse Cote d’Ivoire and Kader Keita amazing run and shot finally beat Al Hadari and Coted’Ivoire seemed to be back in the game but that was the closest they got as Amr Zaki soon struck again, turning Kolo Toure inside out before scoring to send Egypt back to a two goal lead.

With minutes ticking away Cote d’Ivoire pushed to get back into the game and Egypt landed the killer blow a pass from Mohammed Zidan to Mohamamed Aboutrieka and his shot beat the Ivorien keeper to send Egypt to 4-1 and onwards to the finals in Accra on Sunday