Russia Continue Strong World Cup Start
Russia all but qualified for the knockout stage of the World Cup with a convincing win over Egypt on Tuesday.
Although Mohamed Salah was fit to start, Egypt failed to take the game to Russia and lost 3 – 1.
The Egyptians had some strong spells in a largely attritional game. However, Russia looked the more comfortable side throughout and were able to capitalize on their goal scoring chances and win.
The result means that Russia retain their status as the top scorers in the World Cup so far. The hosts have now scored 8 goals after routing Saudi Arabia 5 – 0 in the opening game.
Villarreal striker Denis Cheryshev is now level with Cristiano Ronaldo as the tournament’s top scorer so far with three goals. Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in Portugal’s enthralling opening game against Spain in arguably his best World Cup performance.
Although the goals eventually came, the first half gave no indications that this would be the case. Each team produced only one shot on target during the first half.
Two minutes into the second half, the game came to life in calamitous circumstances for Egypt.
Want $250 to bet on the 2018 World Cup?
Egypt keeper Mohamed El Shenawy punched an Alaksandr Golovin cross towards the edge of the box. It fell to Roman Zobnin, who hit a poor follow up shot. The ball was going wide until defender Ahmed Fathi moved to block it and the ball deflected into the goal.
The fortunate own goal opened the floodgates for Russia, who doubled their lead just twelve minutes later.
Denis Cheryshev got on the end of a Mario Fernandes pull back 8 yards from goal and finished smartly.
Any hope that Egypt would stage an heroic comeback was dashed just three minutes later. Artyom Dzyuba chested down a high ball on the edge of the area and muscled his way past Ali Gabr. Dzyuba swept the ball into the corner to make it 3 – 0.
The one saving grace for Egypt is that they did score a goal and it was their hero Mohamed Salah who scored it.
After a VAR review, Egypt were awarded a penalty after Roman Zobnin brought Salah down in the area. Salah confidently smashed the ball into the top corner to mark a consolation for Egypt.
This takes the pressure off Russia who play Uruguay in the final group game. For Egypt, even a win against Saudi Arabia in their last game would likely make no difference, as they are sure to be knocked out.
