Mohamed Salah inspired Egypt to their first-ever World Cup win as they came from a goal down to beat New Zealand 3-1 with a brilliant second-half display, moving top of Group G and boosting their hopes of reaching the knockout stage.
After a relatively quiet first half that saw them go in behind at the break, Egypt and Salah turned up the heat in the second period as the 34-year-old winger showed he is still capable of conjuring magic from his boots.
“It’s a great achievement for all the players,” Salah said as he took the plaudits among his teammates. “It’s a great win. It’s a great vibe. The next game is very important.”
Egypt, who drew 1-1 with Belgium in their opener, moved top of the group with four points from two matches. The All Whites, held 2-2 by Iran in their opener, are bottom with one point. Belgium were held 0-0 by the Iranians earlier on Sunday.
New Zealand’s first-half gameplan was as simple as it was effective, kicking long when they needed to and keeping possession when they could, and defender Finn Surman broke the deadlock from a corner, losing marker Ahmed Fatouh before steering a powerful header into the net.
“At half-time I told the players we were not going back out on to the pitch unless we were determined to win, and to draw confidence from the pride we feel from that support,” Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said.
“To the Egyptian football community, we needed time to build confidence, to capitalise on our strengths and reflect on our journey to qualification, as well as the hard work of previous generations who tried to create these opportunities.”
The stern half-time message appeared to work. Though Callum McCowatt had a glancing header tipped over the bar early on for New Zealand, Egypt piled on the pressure after the break and they levelled through Mostafa Ziko, who headed home Mohamed Hany’s cross from the right in the 58th minute.
Salah then finally gave the crowd what they wanted nine minutes later, breaking forward down the right and playing a one-two with Ziko before slotting the ball into the far corner.
Salah almost scored his second in the 81st minute, cutting in from the right and firing a deflected shot over, but he notched an assist from the resulting corner as substitute Trézéguet dived to head home at the near post.
The New Zealanders gave it all they had to reduce the deficit and Hossam Abdelmaguid had to be replaced late on with a suspected concussion, his eye swelling up as he left the field.
By the 10th minute of stoppage time, the Egyptian fans were whistling loudly for the referee to end the game.
When he did, an ear-splitting roar went up as Salah and company made history with the country’s first World Cup win and Hassan lapped the stadium with an Egyptian flag.
“Salah worked hard on the pitch and this is something you should know,” Hassan said.
“I am maybe the first coach to let him play in a position that matches his danger, that matches his capabilities and qualities. We worked on so many things and I am sure we are going to see more from him.”
New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley rued his side’s poor second-half display.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “We played so well in the first half. We scored a great goal, created lots of chances, felt like we were dominating possession a lot of the time in the first half, and we were comfortable. We weren’t really getting hurt.
“We talked well at half-time, looked at some things we can do a little bit better, we went out second half and we just weren’t able to recreate the tempo and quality that we showed in the first half.“
