Key events
Today’s officials are from the UAE and Qatar, led by referee Omar Al Ali.
Eli Just has garnered all the headlines for New Zealand with his brace against Iran, but keep an eye on teammate Sarpreet Singh. When he broke through with Wellington Phoenix he was the standout young player in the A-League, earning a move to Bayern Munich. His career since has not gone according to plan but he remains a technically gifted creative outlet for the All Whites.
Kari Tulinius informs me, “New Zealand and Egypt haven’t met often, but they did once in a major sporting event. They were in the same group at the 2012 Olympics and the match ended 1-1. And who were the goalscorers? Chris Wood and Mo Salah. And here they are again, representing their countries at a major sporting event.”
Today’s fixture is at Vancouver Stadium, AKA BC Place. It is the home of the Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS and hosted the 2015 Women’s World Cup final. It has a capacity of just over 50,000.
Already this month it has seen Australia defeat Turkey 2-0 and Canada rout Qatar 6-0.
Egypt are one of the World Cup’s great under-performers. They dare not waste their final tournament with Mohamed Salah.
Egypt qualified for the World Cup unbeaten after missing out on Qatar 2022, booking their ticket to North America with a game to spare. They scored 19 goals in nine matches, as Mohamed Salah led the way with nine, conceded two goals and kept seven clean sheets. Despite the impressive numbers in qualifying, Egypt’s shape is pragmatic more than romantic and they carried that same muscle memory into the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations: tight games, deep stretches without the ball, quick release into Salah or Omar Marmoush. This was exposed by a semi-final defeat to Senegal, when Egypt were set up more to endure rather than to control.
Egypt will probably begin the World Cup in a 4-3-3 formation that becomes a 4-2-3-1 when they have to chase a game, while occasionally switching to a 3-5-2 against high blocks. Mohamed El-Shenawy is likely to start in goal, although Mostafa Shobeir has lately been giving the veteran a run for his money. The rest of the spine looks solid with Rami Rabia and either Hossam Abdelmaguid or Yasser Ibrahim in central defence. Marwan Attia and Hamdi Fathi will screen the backline and Emam Ashour will look to deliver the ball to the trio up front.
New Zealand arrived at this World Cup as rank outsiders but they are now 90 minutes from the knockouts.
New Zealand, known as the All Whites, are back at the World Cup for just the third time, thanks to winning the Oceania region’s sole qualifying spot. Since their last World Cup in 2010 New Zealand have evolved from part-timers to professionals and there is belief they have the skillset and experience to make the knockout rounds for the first time.
It’s a tall order, though. New Zealand, at No 85 the event’s lowest-ranked qualifiers, are up against Belgium, who are ninth, Egypt, 29th, and Iran, 21st, in Group G. The renowned commentator Paul Ifill says the current squad is “miles better” than the one that went to South Africa, where they finished unbeaten with three draws. After the squad announcement the coach, Darren Bazeley, agreed the side were in a good place: “It’s a blend of exciting young talent and experienced players to maximise our chances of winning games and getting out of our group.”
Bazeley favours possession football, which worked in their qualifiers but will be a bigger ask against more skilled opponents. Since qualifying their 10 friendlies have included a draw against Norway (without Erling Haaland) and seven losses, including two to Australia. The warm-up matches in March were mixed, a lacklustre 2-0 loss to Finland preceding a sparkling 4-1 win against Chile days later. It was New Zealand’s first ever win against a South American side.
Bracketology is getting a serious workout today with Group G on a knife’s edge and the very real prospect of Cape Verde making the round of 32.
After claiming a point against Spain, Cape Verde have now held Uruguay to a draw!
Egypt XI
The Pharaohs are also unchanged!
Egypt (4-2-3-1) 23 Shobeir (gk); 3 Hany, 14 Fathy, 2 Ibrahim, 13 Fattouh; 17 Lasheen, 19 Attia; 10 Salah (c), 8 Ashour, 11 Ziko; 22 Marmoush.
New Zealand XI
The All Whites are unchanged.
New Zealand (4-2-3-1): 1 Max Crocombe (gk); 13 Liberato Cacace, 16 Finn Surman, 5 Michael Boxall, 2 Tim Payne; 6 Joe Bell, 8 Marko Stamenić; 11 Eli Just, 10 Sarpreet Singh, 20 Callum McCowatt; 9 Chris Wood (c).
Soon we will get a second look at Elijah Just, one of the breakout players of the opening round.
Here’s the latest pod.
Laine Yamal added some much needed spark to Spain’s attack as the World Cup favourites kickstarted their campaign with a rout of Saudi Arabia.
This was exactly the way the coach would have wished it. Lamine Yamal scoring 10 minutes into his first start since suffering a hamstring injury in April. Mikel Oyarzabal adding two more in the first “quarter”, Marc Cucurella forcing the fourth on 49, victory secured so early that De la Fuente could withdraw those players who needed protecting and give minutes to those that needed them, Mikel Merino and Nico Williams invited to join the party too. Unai Simón was the last to arrive, not making a significant save until the 80th minute.
Here’s Ben Fisher’s match report from Los Angeles where Belgium and Iran each kept their World Cup campaigns afloat in a match full of incident. It’s a result that means Group G will go down to the wire with all four teams capable of reaching the knockout stage on the final day.
There was simply no debate over the moment of the match and it is one that Iran will cherish, even more so if they are to progress to the World Cup knockout stage for the first time. Every angle of Alireza Beiranvand’s preposterous save to prevent Belgium taking the lead approaching the hour adds to the miraculous nature of it all. Perhaps the most ludicrous element was that Beiranvand had seesawed to his left in an attempt to intercept Kevin De Bruyne’s rolled cross into the six-yard box and yet, scrambling on the turf, stuck out a left glove to shut the door in the face of Maxim De Cuyper. Belgium finished with 10 men after Nathan Ngoy was sent off for hauling down Mehdi Taremi.
If Iran advance to the last 32, they will surely reflect on Beiranvand’s divine intervention. De Bruyne glittered in moments, none more so than graciously bringing Leandro Trossard’s lifted pass down on the byline. Beiranvand made it his mission to reach De Bruyne’s pass before Romelu Lukaku, who by starting became the third-most capped Belgium player. In the end Ali Nemati stopped the cross, legs splayed as Beiranvand thwarted De Cuyper. Iran believes. Meanwhile Belgium, who went out at the group stage four years ago, are in a spot of bother.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of New Zealand v Egypt from Vancouver Stadium. Kick-off in this Group G clash is 6pm local time (9pm EDT/2am BST/11am AEST).
In this history of the World Cup only Honduras have played more matches (nine) than Egypt (eight) and New Zealand (seven) without winning. Both nations came close to breaking their ducks in round one with the Pharaohs undone by the second-half introduction of Romelu Lukaku, and the All Whites twice pegged back by Iran.
Ranked 85th in the world by Fifa, New Zealand are the weakest team on paper at the finals. But they looked capable in their opening match with Chris Wood excelling as a target man, using his strength with his back to goal to help his side gain a foothold downfield. They will begin every match as underdogs so Darren Bazeley doesn’t need to overthink anything.
Egypt, by contrast, had more than one eye on defence when they took on the Belgians, double and triple teaming Jeremy Doku to neutralise their opponents’ greatest threat. This evening they will need both eyes on attack if they are to finally live up to the reputation they have earned winning seven Africa Cup of Nations.
With the earlier match in Group G ending in a draw, these two protagonists know that a win will deliver an outcome of historic proportions.
I’ll be back shortly with team news and a roundup of all the matchday action so far. In the meantime you can keep an eye on Cape Verde’s magical tournament debut as they terrorise Uruguay, and email any thoughts about the World Cup to jonathan.howcroft.freelance@theguardian.com.
