Egypt and Iran drew 1-1 in what was one of the best games of the 2026 World Cup so far.
The Pharaohs held on tight as a late surge nearly saw Team Melli leapfrog them and advance to the knockout stages.
Group G ended with Belgium in first and Egypt in second. Iran’s only hope now lies in other third-placed teams being worse than them. But the standings kept changing throughout the 90 minutes of New Zealand vs Belgium and Egypt vs Iran.
The first 15 minutes were nearly as crazy as the final 10. Mahmoud Saber opened the scoring in the 5th minute, but Iran didn’t look too bothered. They responded immediately with Mehdi Taremi winning and missing a penalty in the 11th minute and Ramin Rezaeian equalising in the 14th.
Both teams kept the pace going until half-time, which is a good place to start.
What made Egypt vs Iran such an electric game?
Fascinating midfield dynamics
The game went as most expected. Egypt, a possession-based side in the World Cup so far (54% possession average), dominated the ball against a counter-attacking, defensive Iran team (39% possession average). That’s the first main difference between them.
Not only that, but they had opposite approaches to defence. While the Pharaohs deployed a 4-4-2/4-2-4, man-oriented press high up the pitch, Team Melli layed low in a 5-4-1 zonal out-of-possession look. And yet, both sides offered around the same huge amounts of space in midfield.
Egypt thrived when their front four kept moving around, interchanging positions and playing in close proximity. They started the match looking for a few central overloads that saw all four forwards well positioned between Iran’s two holding midfielders and three centre-backs.
One of those combinations in the central corridor, in fact, led to Saber’s goal. Mostafa Ziko and Mo Salah connected, the former Liverpool saw his shot blocked but Saber followed it up.
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But their aggressive press meant that Team Melli also had plenty of space to play down the middle. Egyptian manager and legend Hossam Hassan deployed his two holding midfielders to chase Iran’s double pivot for long distances.
So their 4-4-2 that turned into a 4-2-4 wasn’t four defenders, two midfielders and four forwards. It was often four defenders, two wingers out wide and their centre-midfielders alongside the strikers up front. This left a huge gap in the middle of the park that the Iranians managed to access via long balls over and over.
Of course, their goal had a little bit of luck involved. It was a short sequence after Egyptian Mohamed Abdelmonem left the pitch to receive treatment, but before his substitution. So Egypt had 10 men and failed to organise properly in that meantime.
Not only that, but two of their men went to mark the same player while Saeid Ezatolahi received the ball inside the box completely free to shoot. Goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir saved, but Ramin Rezaeian was there to send it home without much of an angle.
54.6% of the game’s actions happened in the middle third of the pitch. That’s the sixth most of any match in the 2026 World Cup so far.
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Second-half changes
Egypt went fore a more controlled approach in the second half. Hassan replaced goalscorer Saber, who was already on a yellow card, with Marwan Attia. Not only did Attia not replicate Saber’s high press and rather stayed deeper, but also helped recycle possession when they had it.
Manchester City forward Omar Marmoush also entered the fray at the break. His entrance, as well as Salah’s exit 10 minutes into the second half, helped condition the Pharaohs game to the left-hand side. That’s also where Attia spent most of his time on the pitch.
This stylistic change meant that Egypt had more control and it decreased Iran’s fast breaks. Team Melli lost a lot of attacking momentum for most of the second half because of it.
But then Amir Ghalenoei finally gave up on his five-at-the-back set. Around the 70th minute, he replaced former Brentford midfielder Saman Ghoddos with target man Shahriar Moghanlou. And things changed almost immediately.
Their 5-4-1 became a 4-4-2 heavily focused on getting the ball to the right flank, where full-back duo Saleh Hardani and goalscorer Rezaeian connected looking to get the ball into the box.
Open-play crosses and set pieces became their bread and butter. Which was to be expected, considering the success they had in the air all game long. Iran won 59% of the aerial duels of the match, compared to Egypt’s 41%.
All of this resulted in many dangerous sequences – including a millimetrically offside goal that was correctly disallowed, a clear-cut chance that was timely blocked and a header off the crossbar. For perspective, four of Iran’s seven shots of the second half came from the 91st minute onwards.
In the end, it wasn’t enough to fire Team Melli straight into the knockout stages. But the Pharaohs did make it past the group stage for the first time in their history at World Cup in what was one of the best games of the tournament so far.
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