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Egypt’s World Cup comes to a bitter end

By Matthew Atteberry

VOLGOGRAD, RUSSIA - JUNE 25 : Mohamed Salah of Egypt reacts after the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Group A match between Saudi Arabia and Egypt at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd, Russia on June 25, 2018. (Photo by Gokhan Balci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
VOLGOGRAD, RUSSIA - JUNE 25 : Mohamed Salah of Egypt reacts after the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Group A match between Saudi Arabia and Egypt at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd, Russia on June 25, 2018. (Photo by Gokhan Balci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) /
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Egypt, a trendy pick to reach the knockout stages, crashed out of the World Cup with zero points after a loss to Saudi Arabia on Monday.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end for Egypt. The Pharaohs were a trendy to pick to make the knockout stages of this World Cup on the back of Mohamed Salah’s incredible season with Liverpool, which saw him bag 44 goals in 52 matches. As it is, they exit the competition in the group stage, without a point to their credit. And even for a nation that hasn’t appeared at the World Cup for 28 years, the circumstances of their failure will be hard to take.

Salah, on whose shoulders Egypt’s hopes rested, didn’t even play in the opening game against Uruguay after failing to recover in time from a shoulder injury sustained in the Champions League final in May. The Liverpool forward, returned to the starting XI for the second game, against Russia, scored from the spot, but could do little to help a defense that conceded three times in the second half.

The match against Saudi Arabia should have given them a chance to end the tournament on a high. All Egypt needed to avoid the embarrassment of a last-place finish was a draw. After Salah gave them the lead in the 22nd minute, controlling beautifully before dinking home his second goal of the tournament, Egypt fell apart. Essam El-Hadary, who became the answer to a trivia question (who’s the oldest player to appear in a World Cup?), was the only bright spot outside of Salah.

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Egypt let Saudi Arabia, who despite controlling the majority of possession for the third straight game failed to do much with the ball, back into the game with a pair of conceded penalties before halftime. El-Hadary saved the first (to become the answer to another, slightly more difficult version of the same trivia question), but the second drew the Green Falcons level, before Salem Al Dawsari’s late winner.

As if the results weren’t bad enough, the game was played under the pall of ongoing rumors of Salah’s future with Egypt. The forward has spent the tournament embroiled in a political controversy involving Chechnyan leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with reports emerging he was considering quitting the national team over concerns about being used as a political symbol. Whatever the meaning of his non-celebration on Monday, it was an apt summary of a disappointing World Cup campaign for the Pharaohs.

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