The Sunday's 1-1 draw was just a formality as it added one point to the Egyptians who are the most decorated African national soccer side. The Pharaohs have won the African Cup of Nations a record of seven times. The Egyptians are currently placed at position thirty in the FIFA ranking and are second after Tunisia in the continental listing.
The North African Nation qualified for the 2018 World Cup that will be staged in Russia with a game to spare. The Pharaohs only lost one game, drew one, and won the remaining four matches to book their group.
Egypt now joins Nigeria, Tunisia, Senegal, and Morroco in the summer trip to Europe.
The last time Egypt made it to World Cup
Despite dominating soccer in Africa, Egypt has found it had to make it to the global most-watched tournament. It will be the third time the African giants have made it to the World Cup. The last time the Pharaohs featured in the competition was in 1990 in the World Cup that Italy hosted. After missing out on six consecutive World Cup events, the Egyptians have finally found an opportunity to represent Africa in Russia in the group stages of the competition.
The other time that Egypt participated in the World Cup event was in 1934. Interestingly, Italy hosted that event too.
The Pharaohs will be looking for their first win in the global competition as the previous participation didn't realize victories. The Egyptians were eliminated from the competition in the two World Cup events they played in.
The Pharaohs have withdrawn from four different World Cup events, with the first one coming in 1938, which France hosted.
Egypt then withdrew from three consecutive World Cups including Sweden 1958, Chile 1962 and England 1966. However, the Egyptians never made an entry in the World Cup of 1950 that Brazil staged, or the 1970 event that Mexico graced.
Does Egypt have what it takes to stun the world giants in Russia?
The African giants have had the tradition of only hiring native Egyptians to coach the national team, but in 2015 the Egyptians deviated from the trend by appointing Hector Cuper as the manager.
Hector Cuper who's an Argentine national brought vast experience of coaching that prompted the Pharaohs' qualification for the landmark trip to Russia. Cuper has coached twelve clubs including Inter Milan of Serie A in Italy and Valencia of the Spanish Primera Liga. Egypt is the second national team the former Argentine international has coached, after having a period with Georgia between 2008-2009.
The Egyptian national team boasts players who have exposure with top European clubs. Mohamed Salah who scored the highest number of goals for the Pharaohs in the World Cup qualifiers plays for Liverpool while Mohamed Elneny is a defensive midfielder at Arsenal. Interestingly, both Mohamed Salah and Mohamed Elneny had careers at Basel, Switzerland before joining the Premier League clubs.
The Egyptian squad is a blend of players from four continents, with most players coming from the Egyptian Premier League. Surprisingly, all the strikers in the Pharaohs' team are not plying their trades in the local league. The strikers include Kouka (Braga), Kahraba (Al-Ittihad), Amr Marey (Etoile du Sahel) and Amr Gamal(Bidvest Wits). Other top players who are likely to tilt the North African nation to success in Russia are; Ahmed Elmohamady (Aston Villa), Ahmed Fathy(Al Alhy) and Trezeguet( Kasimpasa).
