With “Olympia” composure in the penalty shootout, Egypt defeated Australia 4-2 in Dallas and qualified for the first time in history to the “16” of the World Cup, where they will face the winner of the Argentina-Cape Verde match on Tuesday (7/7, 19:00). The regular time and extra time of the game found the two teams tied 1-1.
The “Socceroos” tried to surprise Egypt with a powerful shot by Volpato that found the top of the crossbar. A little later, however, the “Pharaohs” opened the scoring with Emam Ashour taking advantage of Hafez’s cross and heading the ball into the net. Hossam Hassan’s players seemed to be in control of the game, but as long as the score remained at 1-0, the Australians had every right to hope. They looked for their own moment, which came as… a gift from their opponent. In the 55th minute, O’Neill executed a free kick from the left and Hani, in his attempt to clear, headed the ball into his team’s net. The Egyptian defender had also scored an own goal in the match against Belgium, thus becoming only the second player in World Cup history to score two own goals, 60 years after the Bulgarian Ivan Vučev in England in 1966.
In the 4th minute of injury time, Beach made one of the best and most crucial saves of the 2026 World Cup, on a close-range header by Atia.
In the extra time, nothing changed as neither team seemed prepared. So, everything was decided in the penalty shootout with Popovich putting the “specialist” goalkeeper Matthew Ryan in the game. The process started with Shooter sending the ball high out, continued with Herrington “marking” the post on the 4th penalty and thus Egypt with 4 successful executions qualified. 

The order of the penalties:

AUSTRALIA EGYPT 

Shootout     

            0-1 Saber 

Irvine 1-1            

            1-2 Rabia 

Mabil 2-2 

            2-3 Salah 

Herrington Dokari   

            2-4 Abdelmaguid

Referee : Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)
Yellows : Ibrahim
The lineups of the two teams::
AUSTRALIA (Tony Popovic) : Beach (119′ Ryan), Cirkati, Bos (46′ Trewin), Behic, Sutar, Herrington, Metcalfe (91′ Mable), O’Neill (91′ Ocon), Irvine, Irankouda (74′ Mohamed Toure), Volpato (74′ Hrustic) 
EGYPT (Hosham Hassan): Soumir, Yasser Ibrahim, Hani, Rabia, Hafez (80′ Trezeguet), Ashour, Zico (67′ Haisem Hassan), Fati (67′ Abdelmaguid), Atia (120+1′ Saber), Salah, Marmous (106′ Abdelkarim)