Egypt and Cape Verde have joined Morocco as African teams that started their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaigns with positive results after securing draws against tough opponents.
The Pharaohs delivered an impressive performance in a 1-1 draw against Belgium in a Group G match played at Seattle Stadium in the United States of America on Monday night.
The seven-time Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) champions, whose titles include three consecutive triumphs in 2006, 2008 and 2010, are making their fourth appearance at the FIFA World Cup. They opened the scoring through Al Ahly midfielder Emam Ashour in the 20th minute and held onto their lead throughout a dominant first half.
Belgium, however, launched a strong comeback after the break and were rewarded shortly after the hour mark when Egypt defender Mohamed Hany scored an own goal in the 66th minute while attempting to clear the danger.
The Red Devils took advantage of the equaliser and adopted a more defensive approach for the remainder of the match to secure a point.
Egypt will, however, be disappointed that they failed to make the most of their dominance and ball possession, allowing Belgium to gradually neutralise their attacking threat during the closing stages of the encounter.
The two sides are now level at the top of Group G and will await the outcome of the match between Iran and New Zealand, who are also in the group. The encounter is scheduled to take place in the early hours of Tuesday morning at 3am.
In another match involving an African nation, Cape Verde frustrated the 2010 FIFA World Cup champions Spain by holding them to a goalless draw in a Group H clash earlier on Monday.
Cape Verde became the third African team to register a draw at the tournament after Morocco’s 1-1 draw against Brazil and Egypt’s stalemate with Belgium.
There will be only one match involving an African team on Tuesday when Senegal take on France at 9pm.
Meanwhile, Côte d’Ivoire got off to a winning start on Monday morning when they defeated Ecuador 1-0 in their Group E opener. Amad Diallo scored the decisive goal deep into referee’s added time to secure all three points for the Elephants.
The results have underlined Africa’s strong start to the tournament, with the continent’s representatives proving they can compete against some of the world’s top football nations
