Key events
45 min +2: Volpato curls wide left from long distance. Shobeir has it covered.
45 min +1: The first of five additional first-half minutes. Marmoush drops deep and wedges a pass down the inside-left channel. Salah, breaking into the box but facing the wrong way, tries to swivel and cushion a header into the path of Zico, but can’t quite manage it. A decent effort, though.
45 min: Marmoush tries to send Salah scampering into big space down the middle. In days gone by, Salah would have got to the ball and zipped away … but they’re long gone now. Australia clear.
43 min: Irakunda falls into the back of Ibrahim and manages to catch him on the ankle and back-heel him up the seat of his pants at the same time. That move has an Olympic difficulty tariff of 5.8.
41 min: Just as he did for the goal, Salah declines to send the free kick in direct, but changes the angle, pulling back for Zico, who curls into the Australia box. O’Neill heads clear.
40 min: Bos hangs out an arm and slaps Ashour in the mouth. All of that sounds more aggressive than it was – it seemed accidental – but it was a bit careless and so the referee awards a free kick, which Salah prepares send in from the right.
38 min: Bos runs hard down the right and wins a corner. It’s hit long by Volpato, but Circati can’t get a header away at the far stick.
37 min: Circati goes long down the right. Irankunda tries to spin Ibrahim, who heads back to his keeper … but only just. Irankunda nearly nipping in. He’d have been clear in the box had he executed better.
35 min: Circati sends another long throw in from the right. Irankunda lays the ball back to Behich, who has a whack from the left-hand edge of the D. Another easy one for Shobeir.
34 min: … and to tie up all the loose ends from that little episode, Hany trots back on and rejoins the action.
33 min: The free kick’s sent into the mixer and Bos swishes a weak effort straight at Shobeir, who claims. Then the whistle goes for a free kick anyway …
32 min: Before the free kick can be taken, Hany needs some attention, having been accidentally caught by Irankunda when the Australian was in the process of being fouled! A bit of a farce on one level, but a sore one for Hany, who has to go off for treatment.
31 min: Irankunda tries to play the ball around Ibrahim and into space down the inside-left channel. He’s caught by Ibrahim, and that could be a yellow card … but isn’t … though it is a free kick.
29 min: There’s not a whole lot going on. Egypt seem quite happy to sit back and let Australia, who haven’t scored since their opening match, huff and puff. “So infuriating that we can’t take even a half-decent corner,” sighs Matt Leonard. “Not one set piece has got anywhere near big Harry’s eyebrows all tournament.”
27 min: The game restarts. “For the people of the world who are suffering from middle-of-the-night start times, I feel for you,” begins USA resident Mary Waltz. “But for the last 12 years I have been getting up at 4am every weekend to watch Premier League football. And most of the World Cups have required vampire hours to watch live.”
25 min: No snacks yet, you’ll get those in the second half. But would you like a pun?
(MBM proffers silver dish)
“That Pharaoh joke made me Tut. Giza break” – Colin Livingstone
“That was an Ashour-ed finish” – Peter Oh
(MBM withdraws dish)
No, sorry, we didn’t stump up for the premium platter.
23 min: Behich works his way down the left and earns Australia a corner. The set piece is sent deep, and headed harmlessly wide right by Herrington … and that’s drinks. It’s either some cans of Victoria Bitter and a “goon bag” of chardonnay, or tea, coffee and fresh juices. But who’s offering what? No lazy national stereotyping, this is the Guardian after all.
21 min: Fathy wedges a pass down the inside-right and suddenly Zico is free! He reaches the edge of the box before sending a low drive inches wide of the bottom left. The flag goes up for offside, but that looked close, and VAR would at least have taken a look had Zico’s shot gone in.
19 min: Bos battles his way down the right and looks to have won a corner off Rabia, but the linesman and referee get it wrong and award a goal kick to Egypt. Nothing much coming off for Australia since that Volpato shot off the crossbar.
17 min: Attia, quarterbacking from deep, sends a long ball down the inside-left channel for Marmoush, who takes it down elegantly before entering the box and looking for the top right. Souttar blocks. Dak Prescott would have been proud of that Attia slingshot.
15 min: Australia look to bounce back immediately, Circati throwing long into the Egyptian box from the right. The ball makes its way through to O’Neill, who comes in from the left and bobbles a low diagonal shot wide right.
GOAL! Australia 0-1 Egypt (Ashour 13)
Salah taps the free kick to his right for Ashour, who has a bash from a tight-ish angle. That’s blocked, but the ball breaks to Hafez on the right-hand corner of the box. Hafez curls back to the far stick, and Ashour, in acres of space, plants a downward header into the left-hand portion of the net! Lovely assist and a calm finish.
12 min: Zico hovers to the left of the Australia box, and is cleaned out unceremoniously by Irvine. A free kick coming up in a very dangerous position. Salah to take. Everyone piles into the Aussie area.
11 min: Rabia sends a backpass to Shobeir, who lets the ball run under his foot and is forced to spin around and hook off his own goalline, under pressure from Irankunda. Nearly a farcical error by the keeper, though the backpass wasn’t great and didn’t do him any favours.
9 min: Salah gets his first meaningful touch of the ball, and tries to find Marmoush in the Australia box with a wedged pass down the right channel. But he can’t beat the first defender.
7 min: Nothing comes of the corner. That was such a crucial intervention by Rabia. Without it, Bos was surely putting Australia ahead. The Socceroos look like they plan to get after this much-changed and patched-together Egypt defence.
6 min: Well, after a very quiet start, that Volpato effort has snapped Australia into focus. And now Bos barrels down the same inside-right channel, entering the box and preparing to shoot … but as he cocks his leg back, Rabia sticks out a toe to divert out for a corner.
5 min: Volpato turns into space down the inside-right channel. He’s afforded too much time. From 25 yards, he takes aim for the top left, and sends a looping shot off the top of the crossbar and out for a goal kick. Shobeir wasn’t getting to it had it been on target.
4 min: Attia sends a long pass down the right, hoping to find Ashour. Souttar comes across to unpretentiously bash the ball into touch. Then Australia try the long ball, down the left, but Shobeir comes out of his area to hack clear ahead of Irankunda.
2 min: A fairly scrappy, nondescript start. Players happy enough to get a first nerve-calming touch of the ball.
Australia get the ball rolling. The roof is keeping that noise in all right! “Yes, just the 4am kick-off here in Sydney … but there will be a pharaoh-ld celebration should Australia beat Egypt and koala-fy for the next round.” Sean Boiling, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week morning. With that sort of patter, isn’t that enough?
The teams are out! Australia in gold and green, Egypt in red. The anthems, both glorious, all about fair advancement and beloved homelands. Who could argue with those sentiments? A rare old atmosphere at the home of the Dallas Cowboys. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!
Pre-match postbag (totally solely penned by Chris Paraskevas).
The last few days have been a strange mix of emotions, led largely by bouts of stomach cramps out of nervousness and anticipation, but mitigated by the realisation that this World Cup has completely re-contextualised the phrase “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Far from bobbling aimlessly between Fifa x White Castle hydration breaks like some broken, forgotten buoy, the steady procession of 140 quarters of football per day has given me a sense of direction and purpose: no romance to distract me; no ‘Are you going to watch the football all day again?’ looks of disapproval; just pure, uninterrupted freedom to enjoy the World Cup as a middle-aged man(child).
That’s why I’m feeling nothing but white-hot anticipation for this tie. There’s no need to be afraid: this World Cup is almost the stuff Socceroos dreams are made of, with friendly time zones, favourable draws and clean sheets abound.
Popovic and his players might as well cast off the shackles at some point tonight, because there’s nothing to lose and everything to win. Be positive, don’t hesitate and when the opportunity comes, make sure you are as clinical as I was when I purchased and built my Lionel Messi Celebration Lego (suggested age range: 14-18 years old).
GO THE ̶
M̶I̶D̶L̶I̶F̶E̶ ̶C̶R̶I̶S̶I̶S̶SOCCEROOS!
A message to all Australian fans who have got up early / talked the whole night through. And to think England fans are moaning about the 1am shift they’ll have to put in on Monday. Some people don’t know they’re born.
A peek inside the Australian dressing room. Yes, someone’s been giving those Ted Lasso blu-rays a good old spin, haven’t they.
If Mo Salah scores tonight, he’ll tie his coach Hossam Hassan’s Egyptian record of 69 international goals. The 34-year-old team captain has appeared in 119 appearances for the Pharaohs; Hassan reached his total after 177 caps. And while we’re on the subject of the Egypt coach, here’s a must-read piece on his close ties with the country’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the military general whose “security apparatus has infiltrated every aspect of civilian life” … including football.
Team news: Socceroos unchanged; Salah starts
For Australia it’s simple. Coach Tony Popovic names the same starting XI as he did against Paraguay. Nestory Irankunda continues to lead the attack, while Jordan Bos remains as right wing-back.
Egypt make five changes from the team that started the 1-1 draw with Iran … though their top line is that Mo Salah has made it, despite hamstring concerns. He’ll be joined up front by Omar Marmoush, with defenders Yasser Ibrahim and Karim Hafez, and midfielders Hamdy Fathy and Marwan Attia also coming into the team. Trézéguet and Mahmoud Saber drop to the bench, while Mohamed Abdelmonem and Ahmed Fatouh are injured, and Mohanad Lasheen is suspended.
The teams
Australia: Beach, Circati, Souttar, Herrington, Bos, O’Neill, Irvine, Behich, Volpato, Metcalfe, Irankunda.
Subs: Ryan, Izzo, Degenek, Geria, Toure, Hrustic, Mabil, Devlin, Trewin, Burgess, Velupillay, Okon-Engstler, Yengi.
Egypt: Shobeir, Hany, Rabia, Ibrahim, Hafez, Fathy, Attia, Ashour, Salah, Ziko, Marmoush.
Subs: El Shenawy, Soliman, Mohamed Alaa, Abdelmaguid, Trezeguet, Abdelkarim, Hassan, Emad, Adel, Saber, Tarek Alaa, Zizo.
Referee: Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)
… all of which brings us to this afternoon’s showdown. It’s the first competitive meeting between the two countries, though Egypt did win a Cairo friendly 3-0 back in 2010. (On the scoresheet for Egypt that day: Gedo, who earlier in the year had scored the winning goal in the Africa Cup of Nations final, and Mohamed Zidan, who had provided the assist. But we digress.)
… and here’s how Egypt got out of Group G. Undefeated, though they really rode their luck towards the end against Iran.
Here’s how Australia made it through Group D. The hard yards covered in their first game against one of the pre-tournament hipster picks.
This is how we saw things from the outset. Reacquaint yourself with today’s cast and crew.
Preamble
Australia have made it out of the group stage at the World Cup twice before. On both occasions, in 2006 and 2022, they lost their first knockout game to the eventual champions, respectively Italy and Argentina. That historical quirk will almost certainly be consigned to the dustbin this year, because either the Socceroos will win a knockout game for the first time ever, or if they lose again … well, you can get 500-1 on the Pharaohs going all the way, so best of luck with that.
Australia didn’t exactly wow the world in getting through Group D. A 2-0 win over false-starting Turkey, a 2-0 loss against the USA, and a goalless draw with Paraguay. But they made it anyway. By contrast, while this isn’t the greatest iteration of Egypt either, the seven-time champions of Africa do have Mo Salah primed for one last hurrah, and qualifying for the knockouts for the first time in four attempts has got them buzzing in a way the Socceroos are not.
Still, on balance, it’s too close to call. One of these countries will make history today by winning their first-ever World Cup knockout match, after which they’ll most probably be playing the reigning champs Argentina in the last 16. A hell of a big prize is on offer, so may the best side win. Kick-off is at 1pm local/2pm EDT/7pm BST/4am AEST. It’s on!