Salah on target as Egypt progress to last 16

Cairo: Egypt forward Mohamed Salah scored his first goal of this year's Africa Cup of Nations to help the hosts to a 2-0 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday which guaranteed them a place in the round of 16.

Ahmed Elmohamady broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, turning the ball in following a corner, before Salah netted a clinically-taken goal two minutes before halftime, sparking delirious celebrations at the Cairo International Stadium. The result was harsh on the Congolese who twice hit the crossbar in the first half and spent most of the second on the attack in the Egyptian half.

Egypt, with six points from two games, guaranteed a top-two finish in Group A while Congo, who have no points, must beat Zimbabwe in their final match to have

any chance of going through as one of the best third-placed teams. "I want to congratulate our opponents, who played a good match, they played very well, created chances, I think in the second half they were better than us," said Egypt coach Javier Aguirre.

"We scored two, we could have scored a couple more, we have six points."

The match was played in stifling heat and even at halftime, at 2300 local time, it was still 29 degrees Celsius. The Congolese made a bright start as Tresor Mputu's free-kick was flicked on by Jonathan Bolingi and Marcel Tisserand touched it onto the crossbar.