Mohamed Salah scored a late-winner for Egypt as the Pharaohs came from one-goal down to kickoff their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 2-1 win over Zimbabwe at the Adrar Stadium in  Agadir on Monday night.

The Egyptians were clearly the favourites coming into the game but did not hit the ground running immediately as it was Zimbabwe that got the first goal in the 20th minute through Prince Dube who fired home Emmanuel Jalai’s cross to give the Warriors the lead.

Manchester City star Omar Marmoush erased the Zimbabweans’ advantage four minutes after the hour mark as he found the high centre of the goal with a right-footed shot from a very tight angle thanks to an assist by Mohamed Hamdy Egypt.

The Zimbabweans resorted to defensive play in a bid to take at least one point from the game, giving a massive room for the Egyptians to bombard them unrelenting attempts to break the wall.

However, they could only manage to prevent another goal till the first of the seven minutes added time when Salah, assisted by Mostafa Mohamed with a headed pass, pounced home a left-footed shot from the centre of the box to secure the dramatic victory for Egypt.

Meanwhile, in the earlier game on Monday, Zambia held Mali to a 1-1 draw in their Group A tie. El Bilal Toure missed the opportunity to put the Malians in the first half as his penalty kick was saved by Willard Nwanza.

Mali finally broke the deadlock in the 61st minute through Lassine Sinayoko from a close range before Patson Daka secured a late-equaliser for Zambia with a powerful header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner of the post.