A tale of two 10s. Lionel Messi and Mo Salah have met twice before. Ed Aarons has the details.
Egypt make two changes after the penalty shootout win over Australia. Haissem Hassan replaces Omar Marmoush up front, while Mohanad Lasheen comes into the midfield at the expense of Hamdy Fathy.
Argentina make three changes to their starting XI following the 3-2 extra-time victory over Cape Verde. Nicolás Tagliafico, Leandro Paredes and Julian Alvarez come in for Facundo Medina, Thiago Almada and Lautaro Martínez.
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The teams
Argentina: Emiliano Martinez, Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico, De Paul, Paredes, Mac Allister, Fernandez, Messi, Alvarez.
Subs: Musso, Rulli, Senesi, Montiel, Barco, Lo Celso, Palacios, Gonzalez, Almada, Simeone, Paz, Otamendi, Lopez, Lautaro Martinez, Medina.
Egypt: Shobeir, Hany, Rabia, Ibrahim, Hafez, Ashour, Attia, Lasheen, Hassan, Salah, Ziko.
Subs: El Shenawy, Soliman, Mohamed Alaa, Abdelmaguid, Trezeguet, Abdelkarim, Fathy, Emad, Adel, Saber, Marmoush, Tarek Alaa, Zizo.
Referee: Francois Letexier (France).
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Argentina and Egypt have only played each other twice before. Most recently, Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Burdisso scored the goals in a 2-0 victory for La Albiceleste in a 2008 friendly in Cairo. Lionel Messi was out injured that day, so that has about as much relevance as the meeting at the 1928 Olympic Games, which Argentina won 6-0.
Egypt’s progress out of the groups was a bit more fraught. A staunch draw with Belgium, a win over New Zealand, and a skin-of-their-teeth draw against Iran.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belgium | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | Egypt | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Iran | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 3 | -6 | 1 |
Having won their first group game at the World Cup, Egypt then went on to register their maiden knockout victory. It wasn’t that memorable … not until Mo Salah converted a Power Panenka, anyway.
Here’s how the world champions Argentina have got here. It was plain sailing in the groups, with Lionel Messi rattling them in during wins over Algeria, Austria and Jordan …
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Argentina | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 2 | Austria | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | Algeria | 3 | -2 | 4 |
| 4 | Jordan | 3 | -5 | 0 |
… though things got a bit trickier in the next round. Messi is unquestionably a World Cup legend … but in a different sort of way, Sidny Lopes Cabral is too.
A reminder of how it all began … and a chance to reacquaint yourself with both teams.
Preamble
Messi versus Salah is an awfully reductive way of framing this match. But it is Messi versus Salah. But while you’d expect Messi’s Argentina to have too much for Salah’s Egypt … that Cape Verde match proved nothing is nailed-on. Also …
… and he wasn’t even on the pitch. But the underdog vibes of that day are the same. So you never know. Chances are, Argentina will set up a quarter-final match with either Switzerland or Colombia. But … well … that t-shirt, and that outcome, shows why we’re going to have to go through more than the motions. Kick-off is at 12pm EDT/5pm BST. It’s on!
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