AFCON: Egypt vs South Africa Football Match

December 26^th, 2025 

Two years ago, I was travelling through east Africa and the Africa Cup of Nations, a biennial football (soccer) tournament, was being held in Côte d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast).  It was hard not to get a bit excited with the locals cheering on their national team.  Actually, of the four countries I was visiting, Tanzania was the only one who qualified.

 

So I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the tournament was on again while I was visiting Morocco, but not only that, Morocco was hosting the competition!  I decided that I would have to try and attend a game.  The matches were being played in Tangier, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Agadir and multiple stadiums in the capital, Rabat.  Looking at my travel plan and not wanting to be attending an evening game as some were starting at 9 pm, it made most sense to buy a ticket for a game in Agadir between Egypt and South Africa.  An added bonus was that I would get to see superstar Mo Salah play for Egypt!

Being from Canada, ice hockey is my favourite sport and the one that I follow the most.  However, when I was stuck in India, an English guy that I befriended was an expert on the English Premier League and game times were at 8 pm on Saturday nights so we would go to a sports bar, have a burger and a few beers as I learned about different players, strategies, history of clubs and stadiums etc.   It sparked my interest in “The Beautiful Game”.

 

I purchased a ticket online for only 150 dirhams ($21 CAD) as only the cheapest of three ticket categories were left.  That was fine for me, and what a deal I thought compared to prices to attend professional sports in North America or Europe.

 

I arrived a couple of hours before kickoff time with the thought of finding a parking spot the furthest from the stadium with the hopes that it would make for a quick exit after the game.  I knew I was pretty far from the stadium, but I was a bit shocked when Google Maps showed that I had a 3-kilometre walk!

I've got a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the stadium...3 kilometres!

Getting there...

Flags from all of the countries that qualified for the tournament.

Looking a bit ominous in the background, but thankfully those clouds moved away from the stadium.

A temporary statue of the AFCON trophy.

I made it!

The Adrar Stadium was completed in 2009 and Adrar means “mountain” in the Berber language Tamazight.  The stadium almost resembles an Aztec pyramid and blends well with the surroundings.

The inside of the Adrar stadium which has a capacity of 45,000.

Not surprisingly, I had to climb every stair possible to reach the section for my cheap seat ticket.  The rows were not labelled although the seats were.  Staff members were positioned at the top of each set of stairs down to the seats and I approached the young woman who was the closest one to me and showed her my ticket.  I was in Row D yet somehow she led me down the first row, the last and highest one of the section.  Not sure how that could be Row D, but I didn’t care.

I'm excited for the match...even from my nosebleed seat!

I was close to the jumbotron...which isn't that jumbo...

...as you can see looking at the other one on the opposite side.

The teams warming up.  I tried to point out Egypt's superstar, Mo Salah.

The unfurling of both countries' flags.

The players walk out onto the pitch.

The end of the Egyptian national anthem.

Game on!

The stadium is getting fuller.

All of a sudden, many more fans entered the stadium, perhaps they got cheap last minute tickets.  There weren't enough seats in the cheap section I was seated in, so fans started to climb over the fence to get in the mid-field section.

And what a difference in the attendance that made!

A free kick for Egypt close to the South African goal.

South Africa putting on some pressure.

The "Wave" around the stadium.

I'm actually sitting in the last row...the people behind me are standing up.  I hoped to capture the cute girl on the right with this selfie.

The place was almost full, over 40,000 fans (capacity is 45,000).

The game was tightly contested with action at both ends of the pitch.  Near the end of the first half, Mo Salah made a dash in towards goal and suddenly fell down as a defender closed it on him.  Play continued for another minute or two as the ball went down the towards the Egyptian goal but then there was a stoppage in play.  The VAR (video assisted referee) must have made a call to the ref who then checked a monitor on the side of the field and all of sudden Egypt was awarded a penalty! 

 

The jumbotrons didn’t show a replay but I checked it out later online and the back of the South African player’s hand did go up and contacted Salah’s cheek, but it wasn’t much of a hit.  Yet he collapsed anyways.  This is an aspect of football that really bugs me.  I hate how footballers fake injuries to draw a penalty or free kick.  They look like idiots and often waste everybody’s time as they roll around in supposed agony on the grass.

Mo Salah's penalty kick.

But it worked.  And he scored on the penalty and that proved to be the only goal of the game.  What a cheap way to win…

Some fan antics.

I don't know who appointed this guy...but he made it his job to synchronize the fans.  He was impressive as he had thousands of people following his cues.

This young boy near me was having a great time.

It all made me laugh...

A young Egyptian fan.

South Africa pressing late in the game.

The end of the match...Egypt wins 1-0.

This kid was super cute...and man, could he whistle!

A pleased fan.

After the match...

...the fans starting the long walk to the parking lots and buses.

Looking back at the stadium...it really blends into the surroundings.

Fittingly, as I’ve been writing this blog entry, I’ve been watching Egypt vs Benin in the knockout stages and the game went to extra time with Egypt prevailing 3-1 with Mo Salah scoring in the 123^rd minute!  They are on to the quarter-finals.

The next few days were very rainy, so much so, that some mud and rocks slid down the hill by the road into the campground and some heavy machinery passed by numerous times clearing the debris.  That didn’t matter to me as it was that time of the year that I had to prepare the books for my paragliding business, so I hunkered down in Octi to work on that.

A temporary river flowing through the campsite from a deluge of rain.

I did get out for a hike on the third day after the game as the rain had finally dissipated.

Looking back at the campground from part way up a nearby hill.

Lovely, but arid terrain.

That's the ocean in the distance.

I still hadn’t quite finished my bookkeeping, but after 5 nights at Camping Aourir, I decided that a change of scenery would be good for me so I headed off to my next destination, a town called Tafraoute.  I didn’t end up doing any touristy things in Agadir, like taking a gondola up to Kasbah of Agadir Oufla, but sometimes that’s just what happens…you can’t see and do it all.