JOHANNESBURG — Mame Biram Diouf set Senegal on its way to an impressive 2-0 home victory over record winner Egypt at the start of the group stages of the African Nations Cup qualifiers Friday. Guinea beat Togo 2-1 in Casablanca, having been ordered to play at a neutral venue because of fears over the Ebola virus, while South Africa put aside a dismal four years since it hosted the World Cup to beat Sudan 3-0 away in Khartoum.
Senegal's pacey forward Diouf opened the scoring against Egypt in Group G when he ran onto a superb throughball from teammate Dame Ndoye and squeezed it past goalkeeper Sherif Ekramy in the 17th minute.
The goal capped a superb week for the Stoke City forward after he netted a brilliant individual effort in the English Premier League against Manchester City last Saturday. Sadio Mane, who joined Southampton last week, netted the second in almost identical fashion in stoppage time at the end of the first half, as Ndoye played an even better defence-splitting pass.
Egypt, which has won seven African Nations Cup titles, but failed to qualify for the last two tournaments, looked to Mohamed Salah for inspiration but he missed a series of half-chances in the second half.
In Group A, Sibusiso Vilakazi came off the bench at halftime to engineer a surprise away victory for the new-look South Africa, which has Ephraim Mashaba back in charge and has undergone a major overhaul of its team with an emphasis on youth.
Vilakazi took advantage of a defensive mistake by Sudan to slip home the opener in the 55th minute and then blasted home an angled right-footed shot for a second five minutes later.
Debutant Bongani Ndulula scored South Africa's third 11 minutes from time with an easy tap-in and there were opportunities for more goals from Bafana Bafana, who hosted the last Nations Cup finals, but failed to get past the quarterfinals.
Guinea's Seydouba Soumah scored early and Idrissa Sylla doubled the lead just after halftime, before Togo pulled one back trough Jonathan Ayite in Group E.
Togo's Emmanuel Adebayor was making his return after 18 months out of the team, but the visitors could not conjure up an equalizer. — Reuters
