Argentina — Egypt: team uniforms, path to the 2026 World Cup, history of meetings

On Tuesday, July 7, the national teams of Argentina and Egypt will meet as part of the 1/8 finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The current world champions, represented by the Argentine team, are the clear favorites of the match, but Egypt has reached the World Cup playoffs for the first time in its history and will definitely fight. The winner of this match will play the best Switzerland—Colombia pair in the quarterfinals. All the details are in the Izvestia article.

Date, place and time of the event

The match will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, USA. The meeting will begin at 19:00 Moscow time (12:00 local time in the USA). French referee Francois Letexier, who has already worked on two group stage matches at this World Championship: Côte d'Ivoire - Ecuador and Cape Verde — Saudi Arabia, has been appointed the main referee of the game. In these games, the referee from France showed the players three yellow cards.

Meeting history

It is noteworthy that the national teams of Argentina and Egypt have not played a single official match against each other in their long history. The only time the national teams met was in a friendly match 18 years ago, and then the Argentines won. Another match was scheduled to take place in the fall of 2018, but it was canceled. These statistics make the game even more interesting, as the opponents only know each other in absentia, which means that the chances of sensationalism increase.

The path to the 1/8 finals

Argentina won all three matches in the group stage: against Algeria (3:0), Austria (2:0) and Jordan (3:1). In the 1/16 finals, Albiceleste defeated the debutants and one of the main openings of the Cape Verde tournament with great difficulty, winning 3-2 only in extra time. Egypt, in turn, did not suffer a single defeat in the group stage: they drew with Belgium and Iran (both times — 1:1) and defeated New Zealand (3:1), taking second place in Group G. In the 1/16 finals, the Egyptians won a playoff match for the first time in history, defeating Australia in a penalty shootout (4:2) after a 1-1 draw in regular and extra time.

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The key figures of the teams

The main intrigue of the match is the confrontation between two superstars: Argentina striker Lionel Messi and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah. Messi, who has already turned 39, is ready to enter the starting line-up. He and his main competitor in the fight for the Golden Boot of the World Cup, Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, scored seven goals each at the tournament. Messi is also ahead of Mbappe in the race of the best scorers in the history of the World Cups (20 goals against 19). At the same time, the Argentine remains one of the main contenders for the title of the best player of the 2026 World Cup, which will allow him to break a number of other records. Salah continues to be the leader of the Egyptian team. "Pharaoh," as the fans call him, scored one goal and two assists in four World Cup matches. Despite his poor performance, the striker's actions have become one of the key factors in the success of the Egyptians in this tournament.

Forecasts and quotes

Argentina is the clear favorite of the meeting. Thus, the Opta supercomputer estimates the Argentines' chances of winning in regular time at 70.4% and ranks Albiceleste among the teams with the highest chance of success — 11.73%, which is the fourth indicator after France, Spain and England. Egypt, of all the teams at this stage, has the least chance of success — Opta estimates the probability of an Egyptian triumph at the World Cup at only 0.25%.