Egypt-Uruguay deadlocked 0-0 at half-time
Neither Egypt nor Uruguay found the net in the first half of their Group A match at Ekaterinburg Arena on Friday.
Published : Jun 15, 2018 18:25 IST
Neither Egypt nor Uruguay found the net in the first half of their Group A match at Ekaterinburg Arena on Friday.
The first chance on goal fell to Edinson Cavani, who pulled the trigger from just outside the penalty area, but Mohamed El Shenawy comfortably stopped his low strike.
Uruguay star Luis Suarez missed putting his team up. Egypt, with their recovering star Mo Salah on the bench on his birthday, did not deal fully with a corner, allowing the ball to bounce over to Suarez at the far post. He took a quick shot, but scuffed his close-range effort on goal to only find the side-netting.
Fans will recall Raheem Sterling's 25-yard strike for England in the last World Cup that had some wrongly celebrating as it nestled into the sidenetting. We have had a repeat.
Few would have expected a player of Suarez's calibre to miss from there. Uruguay need more from their star man.
Suarez got another opportunity to make amends for his earlier miss, but was unable to make it count. His strike from a free-kick went straight into the wall, and he was then unable to pick out a team-mate with a follow-up pass.
Cavani (40) and Suarez (34) have a combined total 74 goals in the last 12 months. It really hasn't been the best of games for Barcelona striker Suarez so far, and it's making life easy for the Egypt defence.
Egypt looked the more defence-minded of the two, but did not sit as deep as many expected. They often pressed in the centre of the pitch, trying to put Uruguay's midfielders under pressure.
Uruguay are winless in their last six WC opening games (D3 L3), their last victory coming in 1970.
Egypt may have struggled to carve out chances on goal, but will no doubt be the happier of the two sides at half-time break.
They've done well to keep Uruguay at bay without too many problems, and as the game progresses, they'll be confident about their chances, especially on the break.