The biggest news from this Russia vs. Egypt game today was the fact Mo Salah was fit to play and would be starting for the Egyptian national team. He was actually fit to play last game, but the team chose to hold him out in risk of further injury. Unfortunately, they lost against Uruguay in their opening game.
This was a must-win for Egypt to have any chance to advance in Group A.
Unfortunately, they came up short against high-scoring Russia, who put up five goals against Saudi Arabia in the World Cup opener.
It was a sloppy game in the first half as both teams were all over the place and it wasn’t until the second half that the goals started pouring in.
Egypt opened up the scoring inadvertedly, thanks to Ahmed Fathi, who had an own goal in the 47th minute. A deflection off his knee managed to go into the bottom corner of the net past the keeper even after he dove to try to stop it. It deflated the team, considering their captain was the one with the blunder.
Once they shook the confidence out of the defense, Russia started attacking with more fire and made it 2-0 in the 58th minute. Denis Cheryshev got a pass from in between the defense and calmly put it in the back of the net.
Only three minutes later, they extended the lead when Artem Dzyuba finally broke through a swarming defense that was lazy to mark him. With a clean move, he got past his defender and put Russia in a commanding 3-0 lead.
Dzyuba had been attacking all game but could not manage to score until then.
Though Salah could not break (or get the proper passes/runs like he does at Liverpool) and score, he did get a consolation penalty kick to put Egypt on the score board. It wasn’t enough, though.
At the start of the tournament, nobody expected Russia to top Group A and now they look like a real threat moving forward as the host nation. They have got 8 points and netted 8 goals in their first two games and have a good chance of getting out of the group with the No. 1 spot.
This pretty seals the fate for Egypt, barring a miracle.