At Joy Sports, we hope the five African teams in Russia will do exceptionally well, which is why we are spending a little bit more time on them.

Beginning with Egypt, we'll provide in-depth tactical analyses on the quintet. Let's go!

Egypt topped their World Cup qualifying group with four wins and a draw, they lost once during their campaign. They also scored eight goals and conceded four in qualifying. The Pharaohs are winless in four of their warm-up matches against Portugal, Greece, Kuwait and Colombia.

Let’s take a look at what Hector Cuper’s well-drilled Egypt side have to offer in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

System & Style

Argentine Hector Cuper is a vastly experienced coach; spells at European heavyweights such as Inter Milan and Valencia highlight a successful coaching career. Cuper quickly earned a place as a national hero in Egypt; leading the Pharaohs to their first World Cup since 1990, just two years after taking charge in March 2015.

Widely known for his defensive inclinations, Cuper drills his team to be very organized on the pitch. The Argentine’s go-to formation is the 4-2-3-1, with two defensive midfielders protecting the back four. In attack, he usually fields three attacking midfielders behind a lone striker. He has tinkered with a 4-4-2 diamond recently, but we will assume he sticks to the system that got him to the World Cup.

Egypt’s game plan is based around a solid defensive approach to keep out the opposition before finding attackers in the final third using long-balls. Egypt use the strength and aerial prowess of Ahmed Hassan to win balls and lay it off to the attacking midfielders including Salah, who has the pace and ability to trouble opposition defences.

System Strengths:

The most obvious one is how hard it is to break down. In Cuper’s 33 games in charge, Egypt only conceded more than one goal on two occasions and have conceded a total of 18 goals. This is an average of 0.56 goals per game, which illustrates how well drilled they are in defending.

In the 4-2-3-1 ,the two holding midfielders, Mohamed Elneny and Tarek Hamed, sit and shield a back four of Ahmed Fathi, Ali Gabr, Ahmed Hegazi and Mohamed Abdel-Shafy. The team sits deep and defends with two banks of four with two forwards closing down the opponent. Cuper’s side leave opponents with little space to attack.

 

Egypt also possess a very dynamic frontline; Mohamed Salah, Ahmed Hassan and Trezeguet offer very fluid movement which means they will always be a threat. Egypt do not commit many players forward, so their front three along with playmaker Abdallah Said, make sure they create high-quality chances in the final third.

 

Salah’s superb movement in the final third coupled with Ahmed Hassan’s threat inside the box and Trezeguet’s quick feet pose a threat to defenders. The most important thing about Egypt’s frontline is their off-the-ball movement; they are constantly working and closing down to help out their defence, a key quality to have in tournament football.

System Weaknesses:

At times, Egypt’s gameplan is a little bit too direct. The Pharaohs have not been blessed with a quality creative midfielder since Mohamed Aboutrika. Thus, Cuper relies heavily on Mohamed Salah to create and finish chances.

 

Too often in matches, Egypt prefer to launch long balls into the final third for Ahmed Hassan and Mo Salah to chase down. This is a very risky tactic as they gift their opponents possession anytime their attackers cannot receive the long passes.

This often means Hassan and Salah spend large parts of the game without touching the ball. Since Egypt do not commit many men forward when their long balls actually work, they find it difficult to create quality goalscoring chances even with Mo Salah in their attack. With only three or four men involved in attacks, they quickly get snuffed out and are easily put on the back foot.

A peculiar weakness in Hector Cuper’s side is how they concede goals. Out of the 18 goals they have conceded under Cuper; 13 of them have come from crosses. A whopping 72% of the goals they concede are from crosses. A very odd statistic since the defensive partnership of Hegazi and Gabr has an average height of 1.95m.

One of the reasons why they concede from crosses is because when the sit back and prevent opponents from attacking through the centre, the opposition go out wide. Their full backs Fathy and Abdel-Shafi are not that energetic or defensively sound enough to prevent crosses into the box. This weakness could be easily exploited if the opponents instruct their wingers to get to the byline and launch crosses into the box.

Summary

Egypt may find it very hard to come by goals in Russia. Their defensive solidity will make it hard for their opponents to break them down. Recent friendlies against Portugal, Greece and Colombia tested the Pharoahs against stronger opposition. Although they did not beat those sides, the scorelines of 2-1,1-0 and 0-0 are very encouraging. Nevertheless, a fit Mohamed Salah will be key to any hopes of getting past the group stages.

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