•Mustafa Rezk of Egypt challenges Kenneth Chulu of Zambia during the 2016 Futsal Africa Cup of Nations semi-final match between Egypt and Zambia at Ellis Park Stadium. Picture by Sydney MAHLANGU/ BACKPAGEPIX

By GWEN CHIPASULA –

ZAMBIA were on Friday night edged out by Egypt in a cliff-hanging semi-final at the ongoing 2016 Futsal Africa Cup of Nations in Johannesburg, South Africa.
This means that Zambia will now be playing for a place at the futsal World Cup to be staged in Colombia this September and the only obstacle in that crusade is Mozambique, who also lost their semi-final match to Morocco.
The top three teams at the African championship will qualify to the World Cup.
Egypt and Morocco have since qualified with the latter maintaining their record of qualifying for every edition of the FIFA futsal World Cup since 1996.
In this game of two 20-minute halves, Zambia found themselves 4-0 down as early as the 17th minute through Mostafa Mohamed who netted a hat-trick before Elmoatazzbellah Abdelhalim ‘Mizo’ scored a fourth on 17th minute.
Zambia got a goal back in the 19th minute through Boniface Ndhlovu to go to the break 4-1 down.
While all believed Zambia was dead and buried, Michelo Kaampwe proved otherwise by scoring a brace for Zambia early in the second half to bring the game to 4-3.
Egypt’s Mohamed Mohktar scored for Egypt to give his side some comfort with a 5-3 score line before Zambia’s leading star player Adrian Chama scored one for Zambia to bring it to 5-4 and create a nail-biting end to this semi-final as the African giants were threatened.
Egypt will now face Morocco in the finals on Sunday whilst Zambia will face Mozambique for the continent’s third and final ticket for the FIFA Futsal World Cup in the third place play-off.