Australia scored twice in their opener and haven’t got one since
Egypt have scored first in all their games so far
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A clash of styles awaits us in Texas for this last-32 encounter between Australia and Egypt, with Tony Popovic’s energetic Socceroos facing the technicians of Egypt. Making the last 16 would represent a decent run for either of these sides.
The winner of this game will face either Argentina or the exciting Cabo Verde in the next round, but getting there is going to be the sole focus from both sides. Australia, in particular, will need to produce an improvement on their group stage performances to advance any further than this showdown at Dallas Stadium.
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Australia exploded onto this World Cup stage with a 2-0 win over a Turkiye side considered to be dark horses for a deep run. A superb performance from young forward Nestory Irankunda dominated the front pages in Australian sporting media. Since then, though, they’ve not been as impressive, losing 2-0 to the USA without ever seeming likely to find a way back into the game before drawing 0-0 with Paraguay.
It’s hard to escape a feeling that this is an Australian side that will live in the shadows of previous editions, lacking a certain amount of star quality in the attacking area of the field. They’ll work hard, and won’t be easily pushed aside by most teams, but if they find themselves behind they’re always going to struggle to get back into the contest. Irankunda shows a lot of potential with his running style, but they’ll need to supply him with decent service, and that’s proven to be an issue for them so far.
Egypt have their own questions to answer, primarily that of whether this is a tournament too far for a generation of gifted attackers, most notably Mohamed Salah. The ex-Liverpool forward is still working on finding a new club and has impressed in flashes here, scoring in a 3-1 win over New Zealand, but hasn’t added to that sole notch in the goals column. Tonight would be a good time to find his shooting boots again.
That said, Egypt come into this game with the encouraging statistic that they haven’t fallen behind in any of their three games so far, leading against Belgium and Iran before being pulled back to 1-1 draws. If they can get ahead against their opposition here, then they have to like their chances of going on to win given Australia’s lack of forward firepower.
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A solid backbone helped Australia pick up the point they needed in the last group game, but picking up a 0-0 against Paraguay is not the toughest assignment. This time out, they will need to do more than keep things tight and play for time. As harsh as it sounds, getting to this point was probably a triumph for this Socceroos side and only one team can come out of this showdown with what they need. Although it is one of the closest contests according to the World Cup betting sites, most of them do favor Egypt, and we agree with BetMGM that the African side should come through this test.
Few games have ever felt quite so 1-0 as this one does. Australia definitely have a creditable defense and with that being the case, they do have a puncher’s chance of winning this if they can get the first goal. If they don’t, however… let’s just say that this is not a team built to chase games. Either way, whichever team does break the deadlock stands an excellent chance of defending that lead all the way to the final whistle. For that reason, we like these odds on a low-scoring contest. It could end 0-0 in 90 minutes, but there’s enough attacking talent on at least one side to swerve us away from that.
Salah may not have been as brilliant so far in this tournament as he has been throughout his time at Liverpool, but when he’s on it he can be otherworldly in terms of his goalscoring quality. He’ll come in for a lot of attention from a hard-nosed Australian defense, but nothing more aggressive than he’s seen in the Premier League. And in games like this, that are all the more likely to be won with a single moment of brilliance, it’s hard to look past him as the most likely to provide it.
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