Uruguay 1- Egypt 0

After struggling on offense throughout the match La Celeste beat Egypt 1-0 with a last-minute goal by defender Jose Maria Gimenez. Uruguay, which is the favorite to win Group A, came into this match with the need of getting a victory since Russia had already won its tournament opener. Now both the home nation and Los Charruas have three points to be on top of their group.

Egypt came into this match with the idea of playing against Uruguay the way Los Charruas normally play against all its rivals – in a defensive way. The Pharaohs head coach, Hector Cuper, decided to have a solid defensive system to face its tournament opener to try to get at least a point to be a contender in this group. This almost work out perfectly for Egypt. The order and the solidity of their back and midfield line did a great job to contend the very few and not clear attacks of a confused Uruguay.

But why did the African team play that way? Well, a major reason for their defensive game plan was the absence of their best player, Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah. He is still carrying a shoulder injury since the Champions League final in May. By not having its best offensive player, they decided to put all the effort in the defensive side and try to counter-attack the South America side.

Because the way The Pharaohs played, Uruguay looked confused in the first half. Especially midfielders Giorgian De Arrascaeta and Nahitan Nandez. The young Uruguayans, who normally centralized the game, were forced by Egypt to use the sides and to be open to create opportunities to score. This is basically why Uruguay struggled so much to have chances to open the score.

In the second half when experienced players such as Carlos Sanchez and Cristian Rodriguez came in, Uruguay had a better performance in their last third. And even though Egypt had some chances to score the first goal themselves, the best and clearest opportunities to open the score were from La Celeste.

At the end, La Garra Charrua helped Uruguay to win as only Uruguay knows. La Celeste is known as a team who can win matches and even tournaments in a dramatic way, and this happened in this match as Jose Gimenez header went in for the late goal to give his team the first win in a World Cup opener since 1970.  

Now Uruguay will face Saudi Arabia and Egypt will play against Russia. These matches are very important since the two teams who already won (Russia and Uruguay) will try to seal their pass to the knockout round of the tournament.