ARLINGTON, Texas, July 3 (Reuters) - Egypt's players were encouraged to blot out all distractions and just concentrate on delivering their kicks, coach Hossam Hassan said after they converted all their penalties to overcome Australia in a shootout to advance at the World Cup on Friday.
Egypt won 4-2 in the shootout after a 1-1 stalemate to book a place in the last-16, winning a first knockout tie at the World Cup.
"I went to the players and talked to them. I wanted to take some pressure off," Hassan
said of his passionate pre-shootout delivery as the players huddled around him at the end of extra time.
"I told them, 'Do not succumb to the pressure. Do not think about the pressure. Do not look around and wonder what are we supposed to do? Just let that curtain drop. Just let everything out, just don't think about anything else. Just think about your penalty kick. Don't even think about the goalkeeper, only your kick.'"
Hassan, who is Egypt's top goalscorer and previously also the world's most capped international, has extensive experience of similar pressure situations.
"As a coach and an ex-player, you know it's huge pressure. They are thinking about everything. They're thinking about the fans, the noise, about everything," he added.
Egypt's kicks were competently converted, including from Mohamed Salah, who has previously missed for his country in key games, including when Egypt lost to Senegal on post-match kicks for a place at the last World Cup in Qatar.
Hassan felt his side deserved Friday's win.
"I'm so proud that they made such a strong game from the beginning to the last minute. I think for 90% of the match we were controlling matters," he told reporters.
"Australia offered a great match. They were a great opponent. And with all due respect to them, there was a lot of pressure that we applied on them.
"We missed a lot of chances, and when Omar Marmoush missed a gift (at the start of the second half), I thought, 'okay, something is going wrong', but we rethought the match plan, made a few changes and it worked out for us," Hassan added.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Atlanta; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
