As longtime rivals Egypt and Algeria prepared to go head to head on Saturday for a crunch World Cup qualifier Cairo stepped up security with police vowing tight protection for the Algerians whose bus was stoned on their arrival in the rival city.
Thousands of fans, their faces painted in the Egyptian colors and waving national flags, thronged Cairo's international stadium early afternoon ahead of the highly-charged qualifier, which was due to kick off at 7.30 p.m. (1730 GMT).
An AFP photographer said a tight cordon was set up outside the stadium, where around 2,000 Algerian fans were also expected among the capacity 70,000 crowd, while press reports said police units were to be deployed throughout the stands as security was raised to highest-ever levels.
The stakes are high for Egypt, which needs to win by a three-goal margin to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Despite official appeals for calm, tensions boiled over ahead of the match when the bus of the Algerian team was stoned on its way from Cairo airport on Thursday, with three players injured in the attack.
World football governing body FIFA ordered Egypt to guarantee security for the match in the wake of the stoning incident.
The Egyptian official daily Al Ahram quoted a deputy interior minister, Abdel Rahim al-Qanawi, as saying police will undertake unprecedented security measures to safeguard the players in their hotel and on their way to the stadium.
"The Algerian team's bus will be secured completely, in a way that never happened before with other teams," he said.
Interior Minister Habib el-Adli was personally following the security precautions, Qanawi added.
Controversy and rivalry
One FIFA representative, Walter Gagg, confirmed to AFP that three Algerian players had sustained injuries which may yet rule them out of Saturday's showdown, which is likely to decide which of the bitter North African rivals advances to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.
"We saw that three players had been injured -- Khaled Lemmouchia on the head, Rafik Halliche above the eye and Rafik Saifi on the arm," Gagg said.
"These weren't superficial injuries," he stressed.
"With the stitches needed, we will have to see if these players can play. The team doctor has still to make a decision on that."
Gagg said Algeria's goalkeeping coach had suffered concussion, and described the bus itself as in a "very bad way with broken windows and traces of blood on the floor".
"The players were afraid. They were terrified," he said.
For the Algerians, Egyptian security officials and the media added insult to the injuries by saying that the Algerian team faked the attack.
The Egyptian press reported that an initial investigation showed the Algerians had smashed the windows of the bus with emergency hammers.
Algerian press reports Saturday said the homes of Egyptian workers at M'sila, in southeastern Algeria, were attacked by an angry crowd after news of the attack and graphic pictures of the players' injuries were published in the media.
The two teams have a history of bad blood, with riots breaking out after Egypt defeated Algeria in a 1989 match held in Cairo.
Algerian player Lakhdar Belloumi was tried in absentia and sentenced to prison in Egypt for allegedly seriously injuring the Egyptian team doctor with a bottle after that match.
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