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Uruguay grab late winner in 1-0 win over Egypt

 

URUGUAY 1 (Gimenez 89’)

EGYPT 0

By Charlie Johns

Uruguay grabbed their first win in an opening World Cup game in 48 years as fighting Pharaohs feel tough defeat.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup started off slow for both teams in Ekaterinburg with goals being hard to come by due to some strong defence from both side and missed opportunities for Uruguay.

Unfortunately for Egypt the resilient defence wasn’t enough to stop the unlikely lone goal scorer Jose Gimenez from putting away the winner.

The majority of the game was spent in the midfield with both teams trying to organise their attack around defensive lines which seemed impenetrable.

The story for the Uruguay team was their missed chances by star players Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

Suarez had chances to add to his five World Cup goals. One shot was well-saved and then he blew another chance when, in the clear, he dribbled too far and Egypt’s goalkeeper and man-of-the-match, Mohamed Elshenawy, dived at his feet to save.

So, if Suarez couldn’t get it done then it was up to Uruguay’s other main route to goal, Cavani, but he was also thwarted by Elshenawy.

The first attempt came in the 83rd minute and was off the head of Suarez who knew exactly where his teammate was. Cavani’s volley was parried to safety by Elshenawy diving at full-stretch.

Momentum started to swing Uruguay’s favour and shortly after, Cavani struck a free kick from just outside the box which thumped into the right-hand post with the keeper well-beaten.

Egypt played the entire match without their best player, Mohamed Salah, whose injured shoulder was considered too risky.

Uruguay now go on to face Saudi Arabia coming off the back of a huge loss to Russia, while the host nation will be Egypt’s next opponent.

Match Statistics:

Possession:
Egypt: 43%
Uruguay”: 57%

Goal attempts:
Egypt: 8 (3 on target)
Uruguay: 13 (4 on target)

Corners:
Egypt: 0
Uruguay: 5

Fouls:
Egypt: 12
Uruguay: 6

Team line-ups

Egypt:
23 Mohamed Elshenawy, 2 Ali Gabr, 6 Ahmed Hegazy, 7 Ahmed Fathi (c), 8 Tarek Hamed (49’), 9 Marwan Mohsen (63’), 13 Mohamed Abdelshafy, 17 Mohamed Elneny, 19 Abdalla Said, 21 Trezeguet, 22 Amr Warda (82’)
Substitutes:
1 Essam Elhadary, 3 Ahmed Elmohamady, 4 Omar Gaber, 5 Sam Morsy (49’), 10 Mohamed Salah, 11 Kahraba (63’), 12 Ayman Ashraf, 14 Ramadan Sobhy (82’), 15 Mahmoud Hamdy, 16 Sherif Ekramy, 18 Shikabala, 20 Samir Saad

Uruguay:
1 Fernando Muslera, 2 Jose Gimenez, 3 Diego Godin (c), 4 Guillermo Varela, 6 Rodrigo Bentancur, 8 Nahitan Nandez (58’), 9 Luis Suarez, 10 Giorgian De Arrascaeta (58’), 15 Matias Vecino (88’), 21 Edinson Cavani, 22 Martin Caceres
Substitutes:
5 Carlos Sanchez (58’), 7 Crsitian Rodriguez (58’), 11, Cristhian Stuani, 12 Martin Campana, 13 Gaston Silva, 14 Lucas Torreira (88’), 16 Maximilliano Pereira, 17 Diego Laxalt, 18 Maximilliano Gomez, 19 Sebastian Coates, 20 Jonathan Urretaviscaya, 23 Martin Silva

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