Egypt's World Cup opener against Belgium on Monday will pit former Liverpool standout Mohamed Salah in an underdog role against longtime Manchester City stalwart Kevin De Bruyne and his talented teammates.
Egypt has never won a World Cup match and has led only once in seven games. Still, the Pharaohs insist they are to be taken seriously in Group G.
Aside from Salah, who has yet to decide where he will play next after a nine seasons with Liverpool, Egypt’s attack features Omar Marmoush of Manchester City. The tandem of Salah and Marmoush has caught the eye of Belgium manager Rudi Garcia, who coached the former when he played for Roma.
“Obviously, they’ve got other qualities, they’ve got other players,” Garcia said Sunday in French. “This is a team that is always raring to go. They’re a solid team that needs to be respected.”
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan was quietly confident ahead of the match. Hassan, Egypt's career scoring leader with 69 international goals, netted one against Algeria in 1990 to propel Egypt to one of its four World Cup appearances.
Hassan said Egypt's goal is to advance past the group stage in the expanded field.
“We have some negative perception here because we have not participated, except for four times in the World Cup,” Hassan said in Arabic. “But I think now we have a generation that deserves to be here.”
Even so, the odds will be against Hassan’s squad for reasons beyond having to play at noon local time amid a heat wave in Seattle. The Belgian side features holdovers from the “Golden Generation” like De Bruyne and goalkeeper Thibault Courtois, as well as rising stars such as winger Jérémy Doku.
“As I said at the outset, the Belgian squad is an amazing one, a star-studded one,” Hassan said. “I respect the Belgian national team. It goes without saying that the entire world is very well aware of what they are capable of.”
Yet Egypt believes it can compete, having beaten Belgium three times in four exhibition matches.
“We would like to have history repeat itself,” Hassan said.
Belgium faces pressure to avoid repeating its performance in 2022 in Qatar, when it did not advance beyond the group stage. The Belgians finished third in 2018 in Russia.
Belgium will need to shut down Salah, or at the very least slow down the four-time Premier League Golden Boot winner. Salah, who slumped by his standards in his final season with Liverpool, had nine goals and three assists in six World Cup qualifying matches.
“It goes without saying that Mohamed Salah is important,” Hassan said. “(But), everyone is important.”
Hassan believes Egypt can pull off an upset because of the players around Salah.
“We have many talents besides Salah, besides Marmoush,” Hassan said. “We have very good players, and, God willing, people will watch them and they will be a contributing factor to their country.”
