The Egyptian national team opened its campaign in the 2026 World Cup, held in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico, with a 1-1 draw with its Belgian counterpart, at the "Lumen Field" stadium, on Monday.
With this result, both the Egyptian and Belgian teams earned one point to share the top of the group temporarily, pending the result of the other meeting between Iran and New Zealand on Tuesday.
At the beginning of the match, the game was limited to the midfield area, and Belgium took the initiative to threaten the goal of goalkeeper Mustapha Schubert in the seventh minute, with a powerful shot from captain Kevin De Bruyne from the edge of the box, which passed near the right post.
In the first serious attacking attempt on goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Mohamed Salah received the ball in the middle of the Belgium field and passed it to Imam Ashour, who shot hard from outside the box in the right corner to score Egypt's lead in the 19th minute.
Mustafa Zico almost doubled the score for Egypt in the 33rd minute, when he fired a creeping shot from inside the box towards the far corner, but Courtois kept the ball away with his fingertips for a corner.
Belgium had a dangerous chance to equalise in the 45+1st minute when Jeremy Doku had the ball in front of Jeremy Doku from a long touch inside the box, but he shot wildly over the target.
Nathan Ngoye made a serious mistake in the 45+3rd minute after passing a short ball to Courtois to be picked up by Omar Marmouche and shot into the narrow corner that the Belgian goalkeeper deflected into a corner, after which the referee blew the whistle at the end of the first half with the Pharaohs leading 1-0.
In the second half, the Belgian team intensified its attacking attempts in search of modifying the result, but faced defensive solidity from the Egyptian team, which closed all the ports leading to its goal.
The Belgian national team tried to exploit set-pieces, and De Bruyne almost found the back of the net for Egypt in the 53rd minute when he took a free kick directly near the box, but his ball hit the right post.
Courtois saved a dangerous header from Mohamed Salah, followed by a solo from Marmouche after a quick counter-attack that ended with an inaccurate shot over the goal.
Friendly fire gifted the Belgian national team the equalizer in the 66th minute after Mohamed Hani, the defender of the Egyptian national team, tried to keep away a cross from Thomas Meunier, only to mistakenly convert it into his goal.
Hossam Hassan, the coach of the Egyptian national team, made several changes with the aim of injecting new blood in light of the decline in the physical effort of the players, to push Ahmed Mostafa Zizou and Hamza Abdel Karim, who became the youngest player in the history of the Egyptian national team to participate in the World Cup, instead of Mustafa Zico and Mohamed Salah.
The last minutes witnessed several serious attempts by both teams, but they did not result in anything new in the result, so Brazilian referee Ramon Abate blew the final whistle with a draw with a goal for him.
4 "record" records for the Egyptian national team
Ashour scored his first World Cup goal, and joined the list of scorers of the "Pharaohs" team, which includes the trio of Salah, Abdel Rahman Fawzi and Magdy Abdel Ghani.
Mohamed Salah became the first African player to score a World Cup goal on his birthday since 1966, as the former Liverpool star turned 34 on match day.
Salah became the sixth player to wear the captain's armband during a World Cup match on his birthday.
Hamza Abdel Karim became the youngest Arab and Egyptian player to participate in the world's biggest tournaments, at the age of 18 years and 165 days.
Uruguay snatch 1-1 draw from Saudi Arabia in the final minutes
Saudi Arabia overextended the lead through Abdulelah Al-Omari's goal and conceded a goal near the end from Maximiliano Araujo to draw 1-1 with Uruguay in Miami in their opening match in World Cup Group H early on Tuesday.
The excitement started before the match, as the Uruguay flight from Mexico to Miami was delayed by several hours due to an airline error, which may have affected the two-time world champion's start to the meet, as she waited until the wetting break to take control.
Al-Nasr almost scored from a corner kick in the 38th minute after firing a shot that goalkeeper Fernando Muslera deflected away for a new corner, before Al-Omari continued to seek to give Saudi Arabia the lead four minutes before the break.
After another corner kick by Musab Al-Juwair was met by Mohamed Kanno with a header that goalkeeper Muslera, who became the oldest player to represent Uruguay at the World Cup, failed to control it, Al-Omari followed up with the ball and put it in the net to score his second international goal for Saudi Arabia.
But Uruguay pressed after conceding the goal, and Vinas almost equalized from a header that Al-Owais kept away in the 44th minute, and then the Saudi keeper stood in front of another attempt from the same player at the start of the second half.
Vinas continued to be dangerous during crosses, and he fired another header that went past the right post in the 50th minute after a corner.
The game settled in the middle of the second half, but the Asian side tightened their defense against their opponents, who continued to rely on crosses in search of a lapse from defenders.
Uruguay's efforts were successful when Vinas escaped control and fired a header that was deflected away by Al Owais, but winger Araujo was quicker to follow the rebound to equalise in the 80th minute for the South American team.
Uruguay pressed for the second goal, and substitute Bryan Rodriguez fired a powerful shot that went past the left post immediately after he was involved.
Saudi Arabia relied on counter-attacks near the end to snatch the victory, and Mohamed Kanno fired a shot that was deflected away by the Uruguay defense, only for the ball to return to his teammate Saud Abdel Hamid, who penetrated into the box and fired a shot that went over the top of the goal.
Al-Owais continued his brilliance and kept away Uruguay's Federico Balberdi's shot that was on its way to the bottom corner in stoppage time to end the match in a draw.
Saudi Arabia will play Spain next Sunday, while Uruguay will face Cape Verde on the same day.
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