{"id":752183,"date":"2026-06-22T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752183\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:57:09","slug":"egypt-claim-their-first-world-cup-win-after-roaring-from-behind-to-beat-new-zealand-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752183\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt claim their first World Cup win after roaring from behind to beat New Zealand | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohamed Salah inspired Egypt to their first-ever World Cup win as they came from a goal down \u2060to beat New Zealand<\/a> 3-1 with a brilliant second-half display, moving top of Group G and boosting their hopes of reaching the knockout stage.<\/p>\n

After \u2060a relatively quiet first \u2060half that saw \u200bthem 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 \u2060is still capable of conjuring magic from his boots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great achievement for all the players. It\u2019s a great win. It\u2019s a great vibe. The next game is very \u2060important,\u201d Salah said as he took the plaudits amongst his teammates.<\/p>\n

Egypt, who drew 1-1 with Belgium in \u200btheir opener, moved top of the group with \u200cfour points from two matches. \u200cThe All Whites, held 2-2 by Iran in their opener, are bottom with one point. Belgium were held \u200c0-0 by the Iranians earlier on Sunday.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Though Callum McCowatt had a glancing header tipped over the bar early on for New Zealand, Egypt \u200cpiled on the pressure after the break and they levelled through Mostafa Ziko, who headed home Mohamed Hany\u2019s cross from the right in the 58th minute.<\/p>\n

Salah then finally \u200bgave 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2060corner as substitute Tr\u00e9z\u00e9guet dived to head home at the near post.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Salah profile<\/a><\/p>\n

The New \u200bZealanders gave it all they \u200bhad to reduce the deficit and \u200bHossam Abdelmaguid had to be replaced late on with a suspected concussion, his eye \u200bswelling up as he \u200cleft the field.<\/p>\n

By the \u200b10th minute of stoppage \u200btime, the Egyptian fans were whistling loudly for the referee to end the game.<\/p>\n

When he did, an ear-splitting roar went up as Salah and company made history with the country\u2019s first World Cup<\/a> win and coach Hossam Hassan lapped the stadium with an Egyptian flag.<\/p>\n

Egypt, pre-match favourites with Salah and Omar Marmoush spearheading \u2060the attack, were backed by a vocal \u200bcrowd at BC \u200cPlace. However, slack \u200cdefending cost them early as New Zealand \u200cdefender Finn Surman rose to power home a 15th-minute header from Tim Payne\u2019s corner, silencing the sea of red.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mohamed Salah inspired Egypt to their first-ever World Cup win as they came from a goal down \u2060to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-752183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}