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Salem Aldawsari, left, celebrates his superb second-half goal with Hussain Almoqahwi (Phillippe Desmazes / AFP / Getty Images)
Full time: Saudi Arabia 2, Egypt 1
We were expecting a 1-1 decisive draw between two teams already eliminated, but in the 95th minute, Salem Aldawsari of Saudi Arabia found the ball at his feet. Only Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary scored the goal. His magnificent goal of the last second allowed Saudi Arabia to win a 2-1 win against the Egyptian starstrucks, who have not yet won a World Cup match on three occasions.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has won its first World Cup victory since 1994, the only time in five World Cup appearances that it has gone beyond the group stage.
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Highlights
Half time: 1-1
Well, it was an interesting last minute, right?
Goal!
Ali Gabr drops Almuwallad into the penalty box and referee Wilmar Roldan awards Saudi Arabia 's penalty kick. But the VAR team asks Roldan to take a look at the game on the replay monitor – frankly it was a pretty sweet call – and he confirms it.
This time, Salman Alfaraj takes the shot for Saudi Arabia and El-Hadary is completely fooled. It's 1-1.
Oh my God, El-Hadary!
After Ahmed Fathi passes a ball into the penalty area, Fahad Almuwallad accelerates to take the penalty shot but Essam El-Hadary – at age 45, the oldest player in the history of the Cup World – makes the stop! He put his left hand on it and the ball hit the crossbar.
El-Hadary seemed to be a bit touched to the room, but he is standing up.
Goal!
Salah opens the scoring in the 22nd minute. After a good start from Saïd, he overtook two Saudi defenders and looped over Almosailem, who had moved away from his line with his misplaced midfielders. 1-0 Egypt.
A few minutes later, Salah gets another great chance (maybe because he was offside) but messes up the finish, sending him off.
Opening thoughts
We have reached the stage of the group stage where we are starting to see games with teams already eliminated. This one, unfortunately, has two. Saudi Arabia and Egypt – dominated by a combined total of 10-1 – are content to hope to gain three statistically insignificant points and do not suffer the indignity of finishing 32nd of 32 World Cup teams.
Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah, who was to be one of the stars of the World Cup before suffering a shoulder injury during the Champions League final, has was embarrassed by his lack of training against Russia last week. a penalty goal. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, improved its dismal performance after a 5-0 loss to Russia, allowing Uruguay to retain some control in the 1-0 defeat. who followed. But it is obvious that he would like to avoid another scoreless World Cup like in 2002, when he was dominated 12-0 in three group matches.
[Uruguay vs. Russia 2018 World Cup: Can hosts retain momentum?]
The queues
Saudi Arabia: Almosailem; O. Hawsani, Alburayk, Alshahrani, Mr. Hawsani; Alfaraj, Bahbir, Otayf, Almoqahwi, Aldawsari; Almuwallad.
Egypt: El-Hadary; Gabr, Hegazy, Fathi, Abdelshafy; Hamed, Elneny; Said, Treziguet, Salah; Mohsen.
There was some confusion as to whether Mohamed Salah would take the field for Egypt on Monday after news surfaced that he would no longer play for the national team on his unease. to be used as a political accessory. The confusion came up Monday when the departure team from Egypt came out and did not introduce Salah's name. But the Liverpool star was on the list when FIFA released the official starting lineups Monday morning.
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