To Benin

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EGYPT's Under-20 football team, the defending champions, made it to the African Youth Championship in Benin after blanking Zambia 3-0 in Cairo.

Cup holders Egypt were in danger of missing out on the tournament they won last year after going down 2-0 to Zambia in the first leg in Chingola a fortnight ago. But the young Pharaohs, who won last year's edition after beating the Ivory Coast in the final in Ouagadougou, stepped up a gear to recreate their 4-0 drubbing of Sudan in the first round to win and pull through at the expense of the ambitious Zambians. Hossam Osama, Ahmed Samir and Abdallah El-Said scored for Egypt in Sunday's deciding encounter.

The eight countries that will play in Benin in January have now all been named.

The win is a welcome reprieve for Egyptian football after the dismissal of senior team coaches Marco Tardelli and Guiseppe Giannini following a 2-1 defeat by Libya in a 2006 World Cup qualifier which seriously dented Egypt's chances of going to Germany.