Egypt is Africa's oldest national football team and has won theAfrica Cup of Nations arecord seven times. The team has made three appearances in theFIFA World Cup and was the first-ever African and Middle Eastern team to make such an appearance.
The first Egyptian national football team was constituted in 1920, the firstAfrican football team created to compete in theSummer Olympics inBelgium. The opening match of their campaign was a loss against theItalians.
In thequalification process for the1938 World Cup, Egypt withdrew. They did not enter1950 qualification. In1954 qualifying, they facedItaly but failed to qualify. Egypt first participated in the firstAfrica Cup of Nations tournament in 1957. In their first game, a semi-final, they facedSudan, winning 2–1; Egypt won 4–0 in the final.[4] They withdrew for the1958, andone year later, Egypt were AFCON champions again. There were only three teams in that tournament, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, who were undefeated.[5]
Egypt captainHanafy Bastan holding the African Cup of Nations trophy in 1957
Between 1958 and 1961, the country had a political union with Syria and went under the name of United Arab Republic, though the Egyptian team's records are attributed to Egypt only byFIFA as it was represented by Egyptian footballers.
Egypt withdrew for the1962,1966 and1970 World Cup tournaments. The country entered1974 World Cup qualification, but did not qualify. They lost their first final in the Africa Cup of Nations in 1962.[6] Their fourth AFCON appearance came in1963 inGhana. Egypt was placed in Group B with Sudan andNigeria, defeating Nigeria 6–3, but drawing 2–2 against Sudan. Despite being undefeated in the group stage, they were ranked second, behind Sudan by goal difference. Egypt, as runners-up in Group B, participated in the third place match, playing against Ethiopia, winning 3–0.[7] For the1965 Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt qualified for the tournament, but withdrew because of their diplomatic relationship with hosts Tunisia.[8] They also withdrew in 1968.[9]
In the1970 Africa Cup of Nations, hosted again in Sudan, Egypt were in Group B along withGhana,Guinea, and theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, known as Congo-Kinshasa at the time. In their opening match, Egypt defeated Guinea 4–1 and drew Ghana 1–1, before defeating Congo-Kinshasa 1–0. Egypt topped the group, thus advancing to the next round, where they faced Sudan. Egypt eventually lost their first game in the AFCON by a score of 2–1, then in the third place match, won againstIvory Coast 3–1.[10] Egypt failed to qualify for the AFCON for the first time in 1972 after being eliminated byMorocco by an aggregate score of 5–3.[11] However, Egypt returned for1974, hosting the event, eventually finishing in third place.[12]Two years later, in Ethiopia, they were in Group A with the hosts, Guinea, and Uganda. Egypt defeated Uganda 2–1, but drew against Uganda and Ethiopia. Egypt advanced to the final round, and lost all matches.[13] This is the first Africa Cup of Nations tournament that Egypt lost three consecutive games. They then failed to qualify for1978.[14]
Egypt reappeared for the1980 African Cup of Nations, defeating Ivory Coast and Tanzania, but losing to hosts Nigeria 1–0. They progressed to the semi-finals to faceAlgeria, who defeated the Egyptians on penalties.[15]Four years later, Egypt defeated Cameroon and Ivory Coast, and drew Togo, eventually finishing fourth behind Algeria.[16]In1986, Egypt hosted; they lost toSenegal 1–0. However, Egypt went on to win their two remaining games in the group stage, 2–0 against the Ivory Coast andMozambique. Egypt advanced to the final for the first time since 1962, eventually winning.[17] Egypt qualified for the1990 AFCON, losing all group stage matches, thus making Egypt fail to obtain at least one point for the first time in the Africa Cup of Nations,[18] while appearing in theWorld Cup that same year. After beating Algeria 1–0 in the playoffs, they were drawn in Group F, withIreland,England and theNetherlands. They scored only one goal in the tournament; a 1–1 draw withUEFA Euro 1988 champions Netherlands gave the Egyptians their first point in the World Cup. This was followed by a draw against Ireland and a 0–1 loss to England.
The team lost both of their matches in the1992 AFCON.[18] In the1994 Africa Cup of Nations inTunisia, Egypt defeated Gabon 4–0 and drew Nigeria 0–0. They lost toMali 1–0 in the quarterfinals.[19] Egypt won their fourth title in 1998, defeating South Africa in the final.[20] Egypt qualified for the2004 AFCON in Tunisia, and were placed in Group C with Algeria,Zimbabwe, and Cameroon. With a 2–1 win against Zimbabwe, the team then lost 2–1 to Algeria, and drew 0–0 against Cameroon, failing to qualify for the quarter-finals due to Algeria scoring more goals than Egypt in the group stage, after being equal on points and goal difference.[21]
The2006 Africa Cup of Nations was hosted in Egypt; the hosts were in Group A with Libya, Morocco, and the Ivory Coast. After accumulating seven points in the group stage, Egypt would eventually win the tournament on penalties, and would also win the 2008 and 2010 tournaments.[22][23]They would then fail to qualify for the next three AFCONs.
Egypt qualified for the 2017 tournament, drawing againstMali in their first match in Group D.[24] Successive 1–0 wins againstUganda andGhana saw the Pharaohs qualify to the quarter-finals as group winners.[25][26] Egypt faced Morocco at the quarter-final stage, and defeated them for the first time in 31 years to set up a semi-final clash withBurkina Faso.[27]Mohamed Salah's goal against the Stallions was canceled out by anAristide Bancé strike; however, veteran goalkeeperEssam El Hadary saved two spot-kicks in the penalty shootout to earn a spot in the final for Egypt.[28] Egypt then faced Cameroon, and lost the final for the second time.
On 8 October 2017, Egypt qualified for the2018 World Cup after toppingGroup E overUganda,Ghana andCongo.[29] In the World Cup, Egypt was drawn withSaudi Arabia,Uruguay and the hosts,Russia in Group A. They started their first game against Uruguay, without Salah, who was injured in theUEFA Champions League final. Egypt lost 1–0, and goalkeeperMohamed El Shenawy was voted man of the match. He refused the reward due to sponsorship byBudweiser.[30] Salah returned to the starting lineup when Egypt faced hosts Russia. After being down 3–0, Salah scored Egypt's first World Cup goal in 28 years. Egypt's third and final match was a Red Sea derby against Saudi Arabia, also out of contention after two losses.Essam El Hadary became the oldest player in the World Cup at 45 years and 161 days. Despite Salah scoring a goal, the Egyptians lost 2–1.[31]
Héctor Cúper, who was criticized due to his defensive strategies against Saudi Arabia, was sacked.[32] TheEgyptian Football Association was also criticised due to having its base in Chechnya, far from where Egypt's matches were played.[33] The Egyptian media and the public heavily criticized EFA's management of the team.[34][35][36]
In the2019 Africa Cup of Nations, hosts Egypt were knocked out bySouth Africa in the round of 16, despite three wins in the group stage.[37] In the2021 Africa Cup, Egypt advanced to thefinal after dire performances in the group stage and beating Ivory Coast on penalties after a 0–0 draw. Egypt then beat Cameroon 3–1 on penalties after a scoreless draw, to reach their 10th final, beating Ghana's record of final appearances. Egypt suffered their first of two losses to Senegal in 2022, both on penalties (in the AFCON final and inWorld Cup qualifying), with both winning penalties scored bySadio Mané.[38] They would then qualify for the2026 World Cup for their fourth appearance.[39]
^abMatches against UAE and Morocco (in 1988), Kuwait (in 1989), Mali (twice in 1994) and Ghana (in 1997) are not considered full internationals by FIFA but they are recognised by the Egyptian FA.[41]
^In the Egypt-Libya match, the match was abandoned due to a mass brawl between the two teams, their referees, and their fans. Libya was expelled from the tournament, while Egypt withdrew after several of its players were injured, in protest against Algerian police brutality and stadium security.
.jpg)
.jpg)
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg)
.jpg)
.png)
