Football fans around the world might have stopped what they were doing to watch the World Cup draw in the Moscow’s Kremlin, but they certainly didn’t stop posting their reactions to social media as the World Cup draw started on.
The Pharaohs are back at the World Cup for the first time since 1990. They qualified with a game to spare, but in dramatic circumstances all the same, with Mohamed Salah sealing their place with a 94th-minute penalty winner against Congo.
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Having netted a staggering 71 per cent of Egypt’s goals during Russia 2018 qualifying, and scored in every one of their third-round victories, the speedy, skilful Mohamed Salah is firmly established as Egypt’s key man.
Essam El Hadary will turn 45 in January and could become the oldest player to participate at a World Cup. The Egypt goalkeeper is one of only seven players to have appeared in six different preliminary competitions.
World Cup 2018 Draw: Who will Egypt face in Russia?
Russia were picked out first as the host nation and were given Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay. Egypt were handed a favourable draw for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after avoiding Argentina, Brazil and Germany.
And the opening game of the 2018 World Cup? It’s Russia vs Saudi Arabia which by current world rankings could be between the two worst teams at the tournament.
Group A 💪
Interactive Team Profiles 👇
🇷🇺Russia – https://t.co/H5agdsDha5
🇸🇦Saudi Arabia – https://t.co/xGiIXdMwv0
🇪🇬Egypt – https://t.co/3PMcWNuwzi
🇺🇾Uruguay – https://t.co/hsqcktF5D3#WorldCupDraw pic.twitter.com/n13H4bzzfB
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 1, 2017
Group A (Russia – Saudi Arabia – Egypt – Uruguay) and Group H (Poland – Senegal – Colombia – Japan) are the two groups with teams from four different continents.
Social Media Reaction for Egypt’s Group:
https://twitter.com/sabdotzed/status/936653431816802304
https://twitter.com/andrewbish21/status/936660686343512064
In MoMo we trust 👆⚽👆#WorldCupDraw #Egypt #LFC #Salah pic.twitter.com/BSCQ5R6iyG
— Sheriff Shaheen (@SheriffShaheen) December 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/EDrmlx_x/status/936656827294482432
EGYPPPPPTTTTTTTTT will conquer this group, i'm sure!! It seems to easy tho!😁 to the round of 16 💪Congrats @elnennym & @22mosalah 👏👊 #egypt #salah #elneny #WorldCupDraw pic.twitter.com/9FA9f1iTo0
— Kristin (@KristinGunners) December 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/Skharlifa/status/936655317550628864
Mohamed Salah Vs. Luis Suarez!
#WorldCupDraw Group A : Egypt Vs Uruguay #LIVERPOOL Supporters. . . pic.twitter.com/ZORtVC7EWA
— Kim Pillay (@MarshmelloKim) December 1, 2017
Mohamed Salah will be facing off with Luis Suarez, after Egypt were drawn with Uruguay in Group A.#lfclive #worldcupdraw pic.twitter.com/AGPJZ8feUX
— lfcstuff (@stuffIfc) December 1, 2017
Mohamed ELNeny Tweet to Luis Suarez
@diegogodin @LuisSuarez9 @ECavaniOfficial
Get ready for the Pharaohs. We are not just 11 players , we are 100 million 😁💪🏻🏆🏆
استعدوا جيدا لمواجهة الفراعنة نحن لسنا مجرد 11 لاعب نحن 100 مليون مصري 😉 pic.twitter.com/fQIkrLUQI3
— Mohamed ELNeny (@ElNennY) December 1, 2017
About Egypt Vs Saudia match:
مصر ، السعودية ، روسيا ، أورجواي .. يا هلا بالسعودية اول مرة نكون مع بعض في المونديال وفي مجموعة واحدة … نقدر نعملها ونسطر تاريخ جديد للعرب
— Essam El-Hadary (@ElHadary) December 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/think_B1G/status/936628033238249473
Egypt vs Saudi Arabia
I cannot wait for the arabic commentary (I do not know Arabic)
— agdnan abdi (@AgdnanA) December 1, 2017
Egypt vs Saudi Arabia looooool there will be a twitter world war this day
— Mohamed Atef (@Mo3atef_) December 1, 2017
I don't think people realize how big Egypt vs Saudi Arabia will be, this is bigger than Brazil vs Argentina
— Abdul (@abdule_10) December 1, 2017
Egypt to prepare for the tournament:
Egypt are hoping they can go further this time around, having demonstrated great defensive capabilities during their qualifying campaign although Argentinean boss Hector Cuper was heavily criticised for what many deem the team’s lack of entertaining football.
The five World Cup teams from Africa will get $500,000 each from the continental governing body to help prepare for the tournament.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) says the money is ‘mainly to strengthen and improve the technical supervision of each team. The football federations of Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia will also get $1.5 million from FIFA toward their preparations.
