Egypt’s captain and star attacker Mohamed Salah was rested for Friday’s last Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against Ethiopia, and the team struggled to a 1-0 victory without him.

The record seven-time African champions controlled possession in muggy Cairo, but were only able to muster one goal, scored by Mostafa Fathy in the 37th minute.

Fathy scored after Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush had a stinging close-range effort that Ethiopia goalkeeper Seid Aregawi could barely parry.

Three times Egypt had the ball in the net at the June 30 Stadium in the Egyptian capital, but goals by Hamdy Fathy and Sam Morsy were disallowed due to fouls by the Gabonese referee.

Salah, a prolific scorer for Liverpool who has been courted by Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad, is scheduled to play for Egypt in a friendly against Tunisia on September 12.

“I wanted to grant him (Salah) a well-deserved rest after he played seven consecutive matches in the past 23 days,” Egypt coach Rui Vitoria said during a news briefing before the game.

After the game against Ethiopia, Mohamed will rejoin the team. We can’t afford to put ourselves in harm’s way by playing with fire with him.

Egypt, which won the Cup of Nations in 2010, had already qualified for the finals three months before, whereas Ethiopia had been eliminated at the same time.

Egypt’s win was particularly sweet since it avenged their lone Group D setback, a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Ethiopia last year that ultimately led to the dismissal of coach Ehab Galal and the subsequent employment of Portuguese Vitoria.

On Saturday, Guinea will wrap up their six-game campaign in Malawi and become the second team to advance from the group stage.

Similarly to Egypt, Mali finished its Group G campaign with a 4-0 thrashing of South Sudan in Bamako, with both goals coming from Komary Doumbia.

With their 0-0 draw away against already-qualified Burkina Faso, Eswatini capped off a surprising run of results in Group B. Burkina Faso hosted the match in Morocco due to a lack of an international-standard venue in Eswatini.

Eswatini is in last position after losing all of their home games and drawing all of their away games (against Togo, Cape Verde, and Burkina Faso).

The African Cup of Nations will take place from January 13 to February 11, and 18 nations, including defending champions Senegal and hosts Ivory Coast, have qualified.

Five-time winners Cameroon are among the teams hoping to qualify on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday.