A surprise in the World Cup 2026 Group 7 opener as Egypt held Belgium to a 1-1 draw at Seattle’s ‘Seattle Stadium’ in front of 66,775 spectators.
The “Pharaohs” with Hossam Hasan on their bench, proved that they will be a “tough nut” for any opponent and opened the scoring with an amazing shot by Ashour in the 19th minute. It took… a half an hour for Rudy Garcia’s Belgium to enter the match, which dramatically increased its performance in the second 45 minutes. He had a post on a direct foul by De Bruyne in the 53′ and equalized with Hani’s own goal in the 66′. But he was unable to achieve anything more against Mohamed Salah’s team, who celebrated his 34th birthday with a win and wearing the Egypt captain’s armband.
Referee: Ramon Abati (Brazil)
Yellows: Castanier, De Kuyper – Atia
The compositions of the two teams:
BELGIUM (Rudi Garcia): Courtois, Mechele, Meunier, Castanier (56′ Ruskin), Ngoy, De Bruyne (86′ Vanaken), Tielemans, Onana (56′ De Kuyper), Trossard, Dokou (86′ Fernandez-Pardo), De Quetelare (65′ Lukaku).
EGYPT (Hossam Hassan): Soumbir, Ibrahim, Hani, Fatouh (89′ Hafez), Ashour (71′ Rabia), Zico (76′ Zizo), Fati (89′ Adel), Lassin, Atia, Salah (76′ Abdelkarim), Marmous