A tidal wave of anger has swept across various social media platforms following the elimination of the Egyptian national football team from the Africa Cup of Nations after losing to the Republic of Congo in a penalty shootout that ended 8-7.
Many Egyptians placed the blame on Portuguese coach Vitoria and the Football Association, while goalkeeper Mohamed Abu Jabal faced significant criticism for failing to block any penalty shots and missing one himself.
Within the first eight hours after the match, the interaction rate on the “X” social media platform exceeded 2.4 million reactions.
Actor Nabil El-Halafawy’s tweet fueled further controversy, immediately calling for the appointment of an Egyptian coach to lead the national team instead of Vitoria.
El-Halafawy’s tweet stated, “He has a team with half of them professionals in Europe, and not one spared a drop of sweat, achieving the worst version ever against the easiest path we faced in the Africa Cup of Nations for $200,000 monthly, 18x a month = $3.6 million.
I think he’s had enough and more. We won’t encounter such a situation anywhere else.
Enough, a national coach… Today before tomorrow.” Wael El-Imam echoed El-Halafawy’s sentiment, stating, “They won’t bring someone with character, Captain, even though all our successes were with the national team.”
Similarly, Hussein Salem wrote, “This is a natural result of the failure.
On what basis was this coach appointed?”
In the same context, Sami Diemeh wrote, “The dreams of the entire national team were lost due to an erroneous penalty kick,” adding more realistically, “Hard luck to the Egyptian team and fans, but Egypt remains the team with the most Africa Cup of Nations titles, a record that is hard to break, with 7 championships.”
Abdul Qadir Said considered the loss natural, and Mohamed Talaat wrote, “It’s a flawed system that has taken more than its fair share.
It’s time for a complete overhaul of the system.”
On the other hand, Ibrahim contradicted those criticizing the coach, urging them to give him a chance to build a new generation.
He wrote, “Leave the man to work; the man is building a generation.”
Similarly, Rami Mustafa expressed, “This man was doing very well, and the team looked good. What’s happening in the training camps?”
