Friendly in Cairo, November 18, 1998
====================================
Egypt - Norway 1-1 (1-0)
Cairo stadium
Att: 25 000
1-0 Hossam Hassan (39)
1-1 Tore André Flo (64)
Referee: Abdelrahman Elzeed, Saudi-Arabia.

Line-ups
--------
  Norway (4-4-2): Frode Grodås (Thomas Myhre from 46.) - Alf-Inge
Håland (Vegard Heggem from 46.), Henning Berg, Erik Hoftun, André
Bergdølmo - Roar Strand (Vidar Riseth from 88.), Ståle Solbakken
(Tommy Svindal Larsen from 84.), Kjetil Rekdal, Daniel Berg Hestad
(John Carew from 46.) - Tore André Flo (Petter Rudi from 90.),
Steffen Iversen.
  Egypt (3-4-3): Nader El Sayed - Samir Ibrahim - Medhat A.
Elhady, Hany Ramzy - Yasser Radwan, Hady Khashba, A. Elsatar
Sabry (Hesham Hanafy from 69.), Mohamed Omara (Mohamed Yousef from
84.) - Ahmed Hassan, Hossam Hassan, Yasser Rayan (Osama Nabih from
69.).


Match report
------------
After a very shaky start in a 4-4-2 formation, Norway changed back to a 
more conventional 4-5-1 formation after 10 minutes. Still, Egypt dominated
the first half, and got their reward 5 minutes from time, after a dreadful
mistake by Grodås. The Norwegian goalkeeper miskicked a ball straight into
the path of Hassan, who said thank you, and scored with ease. 

After the break things got somewhat better, especially the substitute Carew
was a bright point, with his physique and good running. Still, though, only
a brilliant save from Myhre prevented the home team to add to their lead.
However, with 25 minutes remaining Flo equalized from a well-taken Rekdal
freekick. In the later stages Norway had more of the ball, but created very
few opportunities.

In all another disappointing game. Even though Egypt are one of Africa's 
best teams, you expect the Norwegian team to both pass better, put in 
more effort, and create more chances than was the case in Cairo. 
Nils Johan Semb clearly has a lot of work to do prior to the vital
EC qualifying game in Greece in March.