Belgium vs Egypt 2026 FIFA World Cup (Group G) Match Centre, Stats & Review

The Group G Belgium vs Egypt was an entertaining one, as two of better teams share the spoils in a result that probably reflects the overall feel of the game. It’s a minor upset that Belgium don’t get full points, and another great draw result for African teams after Cape Verde heroics v Spain earlier in the day. Mo Salah was great, setting up a goal on his birthday.

Here are the bits and pieces and minutes that mattered during the game, to provide you with as much information as you need in one minute, or at least allow you to fast forward the SBS coverage.

Setting the scene

Can Egypt continue African success against a European superpower in Belgium after the heroics of minnows Cape Verde earlier in the day? Belgium are on the cusp of World Cup Window / Golden Generation, while Egypt will be tough to beat as always and have one of the best players in the world in Mo Salah, who might relish playing for a team other than Liverpool. And it’s his birthday.

It’s stinking hot, so that means that Egypt might be more suited. Kevin de Bruyne looks red in the face in England after 10 minutes.

The national anthems play, and as ever it is a bit unfair to the players to have the microphone on them as they sing the anthems, because they are footballers, hence terrible singers.

“No better place to be sleepless in than Seattle” is an early gem from the commentator of the coverage. Waiting for the Space Needle reference during the game for my bingo card.

5th Min – First proper shot of the match goes to Belgium and Kevin de Bruyne, whom you realise just how much you miss him in action after his Premier League exit. Even if he did play for Manchester City. His shot is powerful enough but needs the goals to be another metre wide to the left

8^th Min – Bit of rough stuff from Mo Salah as he tracked back in defence, accidentally standing on a Belgian attacker, but good intent. Big Mo is up for this game, as so are we. We’re chasing an another African upset.

13^th Min – First yellow card for Egypt’s Attia, and it was plenty cynical. A nice, light ankle tap on the way through on a passing Belgian attacker. Not long later Timothy Castagne earns one for a cynical foul on Mo Salah. This could get interesting later if the ref is card happy in this heat and with a tight game. Calling a red.

19^th Min – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Goal for Egypt, to Emam Ashour and it’s a beauty. They have been on the ascendancy. Mo Salah is involved and sets up the goal lurking in the space outside the penalty area and a lovely pass to Ashour on the edge of the box and his shot, like the weather, is too hot for Belgium.

BELGIUM 0 EGYPT 1

23^rd Min – Ad break, I mean hydration break, and good timing for Belgium to reset.

28^th Min – Chance for Belgium and Kevin de Bruyne but is called back for a foul to an Egypt defender. Slow motion replays shows just how pissweak the contact and subsequent acting is.

33^rd Min – Bigger change for Egypt as Zico smashes a low shot towards goal and Belgian keeper Courtois is up to the task and palms it away. The subsequent corner to Egypt produced zero goals and one yellow card.

38^th Min – Belgium’s best attack so far in the game doesn’t end in a goal, but had lots of penalty box pinball as Belgium push and Egypt repel. Trossard had the best of the chances, but badly fluffed a chance here.

43^rd Min – Another Belgium attacking push is ended with Doku falling over calling for a foul and the referee ignoring him. It may have been a foul, and would have been a handy one, but not officially, which is what you need in a game of football.

45 Min +1 – Biggest chance yet for Doku and Belgium. Ball in the box falls for Doku, in the middle of the penalty area with a clear shot on goal, he can’t keep the bouncing ball down and slices it high and wide.

45 Min +3 – Big chance for Egypt and Marmoush as the Belgian defender heads it back to the safety of no one and nowhere in particular and Marmoush swoops. Sadly for him he tries to wedge it in a gap at the near post that is about a quarter of the size of an actual football and is saved. A follow up gets the crowd and Belgian keeper excited but no goal.

HALF TIME – BELGIUM 0 EGYPT 1

51^st Min – A pretty open first half so far, and now a big chance for Belgium as Doku is fouled on the edge of the box in the middle. Kevin de Bruyne is standing there waiting while the Egyptian wall stuffs around. Maybe they’re better at building pyramids. De Bruyne finally takes the kick and he drills it, curving left, and glances the post on the outside. No way the keeper was getting it.

54^th Min – Big chance for Egypt. Mo Salah jumps and heads a ball down towards goal and it needs swatting away like a fly by the Belgian keeper, which is what he does. But the ball falls to another Egyptian player, who is just wide of the post six or so metres out, and that is a fair description of his shot, which is so bad it goes out for a throw.

59^th Min – Another big chance for Egypt as Omar Marmoush goes on a run down the right, he gives himself room to shoot just inside the penalty box, but the Belgian chasers provide just enough annoyance to put him off and shoot high.

60^th Min – Doku is attacking and fall over in the box, although dives over is a more accurate reflection on the moment, and the referee isn’t fooled either.

62^nd Min – Spectacular long range goal scorer Youri Tielemans takes a shot and this fizzes just past the post on the left. Kevin de Bruyne does worse with an easier attempt not long after and Belgium remain scoreless. As they look to Lukaku, who is coming on as a sub.

66^th – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

What an impact the sub of Lukaku is……He scores with his first touch, doing what no other Belgian has been able to do. So replays show that it wasn’t his first touch, as he doesn’t touch it all, but Egypt’s Mohamed Hany does get a touch on the low cross, and it is too good for his own keeper to stop and Belgium have their goal. Their own goal, pardon the pun.

BELGIUM 1 EGYPT 1

All that excitement needs an ad break, I mean a hydration break.

74^th Min – Another yellow card, this one for a Belgian defender playing tug of war with an Egyptian shirt, and whilst he won the war, he lost the battle getting the yellow card. Mo Salah is substituted at the same time, which sounds like not a great idea, but the commentators are talking up the replacement, and given we’ve seen zero Egyptian football in the past few seasons, we’ll take the word. For now. You wonder if Egypt are settling in for a draw by taking Salah off.

82^nd Min – Big chance for Belgium, Brandon Mechele in open space for a header, which he hits nicely and is heading for the right of the goal but the Egyptian keeper just gets his hands to it and saves Egypt from blowing their lead.

89^th Min – An Egyptian attack down the right ends with a player wrestled to the ground, inside the box, surely this gets looked at by VAR, but for now it’s waved away. If this was Premier League we’d be one minute deep into replays on the incident. But no. Replays show it would have been at home on a rugby field, but not a penalty in football today.

FULL TIME – BELGIUM 1 EGYPT 1

A decent contest, with both sides giving it plenty in attack, and a draw is a fair and probably welcome result. Although after leading, Egypt could be the most unhappy.

Here’s as many stats as we could steal from other places just for you.

This Belgium vs Egypt Group G match is a decent opening round game, with both teams fielding world class players on the edge of their prime, and the teams on the edge of their success windows at World Cup. You can see both making the knockouts and being a bit of a nuisance to bigger sides, but not before being a nuisance to each other here. Mo Salah is the big name here, and the now ex-Liverpool man does need something to cheer him up after a sh!t year in the EPL. Belgium have plenty of names you know, you just weren’t sure they were still playing and for which club.

Belgium v Egypt Preview

STATS SUMMARY

RATINGS

The Gurgler’s in-house Ratings system based on H2H stats, World Cup stats, recent records, qualifying and past World Cup performance is here to make choosing the winner easier, or have something to blame.

BARELY INTERESTING STATS

Surprisingly Egypt lead the H2H 3-1 over Belgium with the most recent game a win to Egypt in 2022 on neutral ground, which is as good as a guide as we can get.

Also surprising is that Egypt have only made three World Cups before this. They are yet to win an opening round game – D1 L2.

Egypt are yet to win a World Cup game at all – their record being D2 L5.

Belgium’s opening game record overall is W7 D3 L3, but they are unbeaten in their last seven tournaments for opening games – W5 D2.

Belgium lost their most recent game v African nations when losing to Morocco at the 2022 World Cup, but prior to that the record is W3 D1.

Egypt had a recent 0-0 friendly result v Spain which is decent form.

Egypt were W8 D2 in their qualifying group, which they topped. They conceded two goals in ten matches.

Belgium topped their qualifying group too, scoring 29 goals in eight games. Their seven conceded not as impressive as Egypt’s two.

MATCH PREDICTION

BELGIUM 3 EGYPT 1