VANCOUVER: Mohamed Salah inspired Egypt to their first-ever World Cup win as they came from a goal down to beat New Zealand 3-1 with a brilliant second-half display on Sunday after claimed another precious point in a 2-2 draw with Uruguay.

After a relatively quiet first half that saw them go in behind at the break, Egypt and Salah turned up the heat in the second period as the 34-year-old winger showed he is still capable of conjuring magic from his boots.

“It’s a great achievement for all the players. It’s a great win. It’s a great vibe. The next game is very important,” Salah said as he took the plaudits amongst his team-mates.

Egypt, who drew 1-1 with Belgium in their opener, moved top of the group with four points from two matches. The All Whites, held 2-2 by Iran in their opener, are bottom with one point. Belgium were held 0-0 by the Iranians earlier on Sunday.

New Zealands first-half gameplan was as simple as it was effective, kicking long when they needed to and keeping possession when they could, and defender Finn Surman broke the deadlock from a corner, losing marker Ahmed Fatouh before steering a powerful header into the net.

Though Callum McCowatt had a glancing header tipped over the bar early on for New Zealand, Egypt piled on the pressure after the break and they levelled through Mostafa Zico, who headed home Mohamed Hany’s cross from the right in the 58th minute.

Salah then finally gave the crowd what they wanted nine minutes later, breaking forward down the right and playing a one-two with Zico before slotting the ball into the far corner.

Salah almost scored his second in the 81st minute, cutting in from the right and firing a deflected shot over, but he notched an assist from the resulting corner as substitute Mahmoud Trezeguet dived to head home at the near post.

By the 10th minute of stoppage time, the Egyptian fans were whistling loudly for the referee to end the game.

When he did, an ear-splitting roar went up as Salah and company made history with the country’s first World Cup win and coach Hossam Hassan lapped the stadium with an Egyptian flag.

STERN HALF-TIME MESSAGE

Hassan revealed later that he told his players they would not return to the pitch for the second half unless they were determined to get the win their proud supporters deserved.

“At half-time I told the players we were not going back out onto the pitch unless we were determined to win and to draw confidence from the pride we feel from that support,” Hassan told reporters.

“To the Egyptian football community, we needed time to build confidence, to capitalise on our strengths and reflect on our journey to qualification, as well as the hard work of previous generations who tried to create these opportunities.

“I wanted this generation to shape its own future, to determine its own path. We also want to continue developing at the level of the national league and across African football.”

Cape Verde, meanwhile, celebrated one more precious World Cup point against yet another former champion, the shock was not that they scored twice against Uruguay in a pulsating 2-2 draw but that they never looked surprised themselves.

This was only Cape Verde’s second World Cup match, a fixture that on paper pitted newcomers against one of the traditional powers, with 51 rungs separating the two sides in the rankings.

Yet from the opening minutes, it was difficult to identify which team carried the weight of history and which players were simply enjoying the moment as Cape Verde approached Uruguay without deference or fear.

“This is something we owe to other smaller national teams, teams that struggle to qualify for a World Cup,” Cape Verde coach Bubista told reporters. “A country may be small, may struggle financially, but if they’re resilient, if they can endure struggle, if they work in an organised manner, they can also stand shoulder to shoulder with other major teams.”

Marcelo Bielsa had packed Uruguay’s midfield, probably in the expectation that Cape Verde could sit back as they did against Spain, but that backfired quickly.

Cape Verde’s opening goal reflected that boldness as Kevin Pina’s ambitious strike from over 30 metres out squeezed through the wall and beyond the desperate dive of veteran keeper Fernando Muslera.

The celebrations carried the emotion of a country witnessing history and were so exuberant that the referee eventually had to usher players back towards the centre circle for the restart.

Uruguay took Cape Verde’s showboating as an insult and the lead disappeared with Maxi Araujo’s poacher finish for the equaliser before setting up Agustin Canobbio for the second as they turned the match completely on its head.

But Cape Verde remained unbowed and soon produced perhaps their defining moment of the tournament.

Helio Varela came on as a substitute and his eyes lit up when Mathias Olivera’s loose back pass ended up in no man’s land, accepting the gift gratefully as he skilfully sent the ball into an empty net with Muslera off his line.

As Olivera sank to his knees in despair, Varela struck a pose to show off his chiselled biceps as he was lifted into the air by his team-mates, some of whom could not hold back tears.

“We know we have two draws, two matches that we could have won, we should have been able to win,” the 70-year-old Bielsa told reporters.

“There’s no doubt we deserved to win the match with Saudi Arabia and also the match today as well. We should have won it. Even with the goals that we conceded, we should have won still.”

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2026