Egypt vs Uruguay: Will Salah help the Pharaohs make history?
Egypt will be heavily relying on their talismanic star Mohamed Salah as they take on Group A favorites Uruguay at the Ekaterinburg Arena on Friday evening.
The Pharaohs are back in the World Cup for the first time since 1990, and will be hoping to win their first ever game in this tournament. Of course, that will be much easier said than done. Salah’s heroics, namely a last gasp penalty, were enough to get the job done and the speedy attacker will be coming into this tie off the back of a fantastic season with Liverpool. However, Hector Cuper’s side will be sweating over his fitness following an unfortunate injury to his star man during last month’s Champions League final.
Sergio Ramos, perhaps not surprisingly, was the villain yet again as he tussled with Salah whilst fighting for the ball. The Spaniard came off better following his judo-style take-down, but Salah unfortunately saw his game end prematurely due to a dislocated shoulder. Whilst he’s not fully recovered, he’s still set to feature on what will be his 26th birthday this Friday, as Egypt will be desperately needing to pick up a good result following Russia’s 5-0 drubbing of Saudi Arabia in the tournament opener.
Unfortunately, they come into this game having failed to win a game since October 2017, when they defeated Congo. Their last warm-up game saw them drubbed 3-0 by Belgium, albeit without Salah in the squad, but it’s quite worrying ahead of their showdown with Uruguay. Oscar Tabarez’s men were quite solid during qualifiers, and are spearheaded by the fearsome duo of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani – the latter of whom was the highest scoring player in South American qualifiers with ten goals.
This will be the 14th appearance at a World Cup for the South Americans, and naturally they’re the definite favorites to qualify for the knockout rounds. A 3-0 comfortable win over Uzbekistan was the perfect stage to set them up heading into Russia, and despite the presence of Salah in their opponents’ ranks, Uruguay will be definitely fancying their chances to come out on top.
Having lost just one of their last nine – and managing to record shut-outs in six of those – Tabarez’s side will also have an eye on maintaining this impressive run, especially with Russia sitting top of the quartet thanks to their 5-0 blowout of Saudi Arabia. It’s also set to be a meeting of Liverpool stars, with one present one (Salah) facing a former familiar face (Suarez), and fans and neutrals alike will be eagerly hoping to see which star can have the biggest impact in what should be highly entertaining clash.
Russia set the stage with their 5-0 result against Saudi Arabia, who are unfortunately looking set to be this group’s whipping boys, and where everyone will be looking to pick up three points. Egypt will fancy their chances there, but first will need to take on who will be their toughest opponent at this tournament so far. Will Salah, despite his injury, be able to rise to the occasion as they seek to make history against a very formidable foe? Or will Uruguay sweep them aside to establish themselves as group leaders?
