{"id":763155,"date":"2026-06-27T06:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763155\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T06:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:22:15","slug":"socceroos-opponent-for-world-cup-knockout-round-revealed-as-egypt-after-irans-winner-ruled-offside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763155\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos\u2019 opponent for World Cup knockout round revealed as Egypt after Iran\u2019s winner ruled offside"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Socceroos<\/a> will face Egypt in the Round of 32 at the World Cup<\/a> next weekend.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a brilliant result for the Aussies, who have avoided Belgium after the European side finally woke up to thrash New Zealand in a 5-1 win.<\/p>\n

The thumping moved Belgium to the top of Group G ahead of Egypt, who were locked at 1-1 in their clash with Iran \u2014 but in stoppage time it looked as though Iran would progress to face Australia.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

But their dramatic winner was ruled offside after VAR replays showed there was what the commentators described as a \u201clittle toe\u201d in it to rule out Iran\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

An Iranian victory would have produced a long-awaited rematch with Australia after the dramatic 1997 World Cup qualifier between the two teams at the MCG.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Socceroos will face Egypt and their superstar Mo Salah \u2014 provided he is fit to play, after asking to be substituted out of the Iran clash and being seen with ice on his hamstring afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"EgyptEgypt players celebrate after Iran\u2019s stoppage-time winner was ruled offside. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Belgium loomed as a much more difficult opponent but Australia\u2019s clash with Egypt will pit two closely matched teams. Egypt sit 26th in the world rankings, just two places above the Socceroos.<\/p>\n

The Round of 32 clash between Australia and Egypt will take place next Friday in Dallas, with kick-off at 4am AEST on Saturday, July 4.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos will be without Mathew Leckie and Jacob Italiano after the injured pair were ruled out for the rest of the tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leckie (hamstring) went down in the loss to the US while Italiano suffered a groin injury in training this week and missed the draw with Paraguay.<\/p>\n

Both losses are a blow to Australia\u2019s depth as the tournament continues.<\/p>\n

Italiano\u2019s absence could mean Jordan Bos remains at right-back, where he dominated against Paraguay, with Aziz Behich staying on the left.<\/p>\n

An Australian victory against Egypt would be likely to produce a Round of 16 rematch with Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina, who eliminated the Aussies with a 2-1 win at the same stage of the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Argentina will face surprise packets Cape Verde<\/a> in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s possible Round of 16 match against Argentina or Cape Verde would kick off at 2am AEST on Wednesday, July 8.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos\u2019 loss to Argentina four years ago still stings Behich, while Jackson Irvine has urged the squad to \u201cbreak that next barrier\u201d of finally winning a knockout game on the nation\u2019s third visit beyond the group stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously second time out of the group now, but the last one left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth,\u201d Behich said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still got that burning fire in the belly. We\u2019ve always said we want to do something special with this group and why can\u2019t it be us? <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think we\u2019ve got a great opportunity. We\u2019ve created this opportunity from our hard work to be here – it wasn\u2019t given to us. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s in our hands leading into this game. So (I\u2019m) full of confidence that … this group can do something special this campaign.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Socceroos had a light recovery session on Friday as they soak up their achievement of finishing second in Group D and progressing to the Round of 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, you need to enjoy what we did last night, because these moments don\u2019t come around often, especially at this level,\u201d Behich said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the pinnacle of football, you\u2019re up against the best in the world, and we did something special coming from Australia, so we really need to enjoy that. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut once this week starts with our training sessions, we need to put that aside and really focus on what\u2019s next and I think that\u2019s important.\u201d <\/p>\n

Australia won\u2019t relocate from their Bay Area base until July 1, two days before their game in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got eight days to recover, which helps our younger players to get over this euphoria of the win \u2014 and then we need to work hard, and we\u2019re a chance,\u201d coach Tony Popovic said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 with AAP<\/p>\n

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4 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Socceroos will face Egypt in the Round of 32 at the World Cup next weekend. It\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,596,1625,44,42150,3863,588,124617],"class_list":["post-763155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-socceroos","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763155","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=763155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}