Belgium 1-1 Egypt: points shared as Salah grabs birthday assist in Group G opener | OneFootball

Belgium and Egypt played out an entertaining 1-1 draw in the opening game of Group G at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Egypt took an early lead through Emam Ashour, assisted by birthday boy Mohamed Salah, before Romelu Lukaku’s presence forced an own goal equaliser from Mohamed Hany.

The game was scrappy throughout, with over 30 fouls being committed between the two sides, and whilst both sides won’t be upset with getting a point on the board, they will also both feel as though they had the chances to win the game.

As It Happened

The first chance of the contest fell to Kevin De Bruyne after seven minutes, who fired narrowly wide from the edge of the area with a right-footed strike. The game had a scrappy feel in the opening stages, which was epitomised when Timothy Castagne was booked for a foul on Mohamed Salah. Egypt’s Marwan Ateya was also shown a yellow card inside the first quarter of an hour for tripping Nathan Ngoy.

It was Ashour who opened the scoring after 19 minutes when his fierce strike from the edge of the area perfectly picked out the bottom corner, for his first international goal.

Belgium continued to dominate large parts of the play, but they were unable to create anything for most of the first half-hour due to a solid Egyptian backline.

Thibaut Courtois first save of the match came in the 33rd minute, getting down low to deny Mostafa Zico. Ahmed El Fotouh was then shown a yellow card for fouling Jérémy Doku in a wide area as the winger tried to break away.

Belgium struggled to get any real rhythm to their game throughout the first half, with Egypt consistently breaking up play with both tackles and fouls. Their best opportunity of the half came to Doku in the first minute of added time, but the winger lashed his volley over the crossbar.

Courtois was forced into another smart stop on the stroke of half-time, this time denying Omar Marmoush from a tight angle, meaning the score remained 1-0 going into the break.

Neither side made any personnel changes during the interval, but a slight tactical tweak for Belgium allowed Doku to occupy a role further up the pitch and move Charles de Ketelaere out to the right wing.

Doku won a free-kick right on the edge of the penalty area in the 51st minute, when he was brought down by Ateya.

De Bruyne stepped up to the plate for the set-piece and struck the woodwork with a good effort. Courtois made another save shortly after, palming Salah’s header away to Ashour, who couldn’t hit the target with his strike.

A double change followed for Belgium, which saw Amadou Onana and Castagne replaced by Nicolas Raskin and Maxim De Cuyper as they went in search of a leveller.

Marmoush came close to extending his side’s lead on the hour mark, but some brilliant recovery work from Ngoy was enough to put him off. Doku then had a penalty appeal waved away after dancing through the Egyptian defence before falling to the floor when the ball got away from him.

Tielemans was next up to try and find the net for Belgium, he caught a volley incredibly sweetly but saw it fly narrowly wide of the post.

De Bruyne wasted his side’s best chance of the match so far moments later, mis-kicking the ball and making it simple for Mostafa Shobeir to collect. That was Belgium’s first shot on target of the match, further emphasising their ongoing struggles in front of goal.

Despite being dubbed “out of shape” by his manager just a few days ago, Lukaku was then introduced from the bench to replace De Ketelaere. It took just seconds for the forward to make an impact, though, sliding into the six-yard box and appearing to poke home an equaliser for Belgium, but it was given as a Hany own goal in the end.

Egypt made their first change of the match following the goal, which saw Ramy Rabia replace Ashour. De Cuyper was booked minutes later, when he hauled down Zico. Mostafa Ziko and Salah were also withdrawn in favour of Zizo and Hamza Abdelkarim.

Shobeir was forced into a superb save with 10 minutes left on the clock to deny Belgium taking the lead through Brandon Mechele’s header.

A double change followed for The Red Devils, with De Bruyne and Doku being replaced by Hans Vanaken and Matias Fernandez-Pardo.

As the clock began to wind down, Raskin delivered a brilliant ball into the area for Lukaku, but the centre-forward couldn’t direct his header on target, perhaps a bit of “ring rust” for him, having only played seven games at club level this season.

Egypt’s final changes saw Karim Hafez and Ibrahim Adel replace Hamdi Fathi and El Fotouh.

The last chance of the game saw Mechele head over the crossbar from Tielemans’ delivery, bringing an entertaining contest to a close with the points shared.