Hossam Abdelmaguid puffed out his cheeks, began his run up with exaggerated slowness, checked and then, as Mat Ryan fell to his left, put the ball to his right. Harry Souttar and the 18-year-old Lucas Herrington had already missed for Australia and Egypt, having scored all of their penalties, were through. Abdelmaguid ran off to the corner, ripping off his shirt, and was soon joined by an ecstatic posse of Egyptian players. Mohamed Salah, who had converted a Panenka, was in tears, and the manager Hossam Hassan was in tears. Don’t worry about the scrappy, largely formless game from which the emotion stemmed: Egypt had won a World Cup knockout tie for the first time.
“My heart and soul are with the Palestinian people,” said Hassan. “I thank them and dedicate this victory to them. We succeeded in making Arab people proud. I wanted to win for the sake of the good people. God is honouring us because of the good people who are here.”
Hassan occupies a curious place in the Egyptian pantheon. He is one of their greatest strikers, a three-time Cup of Nations winner, but he has been heavily criticised as a coach, not least by his former teammates Ahmed Hassan and Essam El-Hadary. Many dislike him for his evident alignment with the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, while even his supporters acknowledge he’s more motivator than tactician. Yet he’s taken Egypt through to the last 16 of the World Cup. Last time they got that far was 1934, when there were only 16 teams, and they lost 4-2 to Hungary.
From the moment Mohamed Hany headed into his own goal 10 minutes into the second half, penalties had seemed probable. Egypt perhaps had more intent, particularly after the introduction of Trezeguet and the switch to a back three, but beyond one reflex tip over Patrick Beach made to keep out a Rami Rabia header, their threat had been limited. Beach was replaced late in extra-time to allow Ryan to come on for penalties, but the former Brighton keeper didn’t get near any of them.
Egypt had taken a 13th-minute lead through Emam Ashour, who has had a remarkable year. Playing in a central role behind the front two, the Al-Ahly forward was arguably Egypt’s best player at the Cup of Nations. Deployed on the right in this tournament, the 28-year-old scored his first international goal in the draw against Belgium, and then, when his shot from a cleverly worked free-kick on the left was blocked after 13 minutes, he lingered at the back post and was unmarked to head in when Karim Hafez returned the ball to the middle.
There was a time when Egypt would have tried to kill the game, but Hossam Hassan is no Hassan Shehata or Carlos Queiroz. There was remarkably little spoiling or time-wasting, in part down to the admirably no-nonsense approach of the Uruguayan referee Gustavo Tejera, who seemed able to diagnose (non-)injuries from a distance of 20 yards while jogging backwards. The paucity of Australian chances was more about Australia’s lack of creative spark than anything Egypt did, whether in terms of organisation or gamesmanship. Although Cristian Volpato had flicked the top of the bar early on, most of half-opportunities did arise for Australia tended to be from half-cleared set-plays. Sure enough, it was a dead ball that brought the equaliser 10 minutes into the second half, Hany heading an Aiden O’Neill free-kick into his own net.
Egypt’s build-up had been overshadowed by a clash between the team director Ibrahim Hassan, the twin brother of the coach, and a Dallas police officer at the team hotel the day before the game.
Footage appears to show the officer intervening with needless aggression to prevent a player posing for a photograph with a child. Hassan, though, is not somebody to take a backward step. He once grabbed a rifle from a Lebanese army officer to prevent him striking his brother when a game got out of hand, missed the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations after raising a middle finger at Moroccan fans and habitually sits at the back of national team press conferences taking issue with questions he feels tonally inappropriate.
After the officer had shoved Hassan in the chest, the former defender squared up to him, two huge bald men going nose to nose. The officer appeared to be reaching for his handcuffs when the forward Trezeguet intervened and both eventually backed down. Although a federation source dismissed the incident as “a minor altercation”, he also criticised local security’s “poor handling” of the arrival and the “harsh demeanour” of police officers. Dallas Police later acknowledged an incident had occurred, blaming “individuals” for not “displaying credentials properly”.
But Egypt can forget about that for now. They are still in the World Cup, going on to Atlanta to face either Cape Verde or the world champions Argentina.
