Mohamed Salah was the architect of the lone goal as Egypt edged Senegal 1-0 in Cairo in a World Cup playoff first leg.
Salah turned inside the box and slammed the ball against the crossbar, with the rebound hitting Senegal defender Saliou Ciss and rolling into the net.
Elsewhere in Africa’s qualifying playoffs, Algeria’s Islam Slimani headed home for a 1-0 away victory over Cameroon to take a giant step towards a place at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Algeria host the return tie in Blida on Tuesday, well placed to qualify for their fifth appearance at the World Cup.
The match was interrupted for six minutes early in the second half as the lights went out in the newly built Japoma stadium in Douala but were quickly restored.
Tunisia defeated Mali 1-0 in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – third-round – first-leg match at the Stade du 26 Mars in Bamako on Friday night.
The two teams are now set to meet in the second-leg match in Tunisia on Tuesday and the winner on aggregate will book their spot in the World Cup finals in Qatar.
The Carthage Lions started the match brightly and they pressed the Eagles’ defence which was forced to make mistakes in their own half, and this led to the only goal of the match.
Moussa Sissako scored an unfortunate own goal as his back pass beat goalkeeper Ibrahim Mounkoro to hand Tunisia a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute.