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Published On 4/7/2026
The Egyptian national team achieved an unprecedented football achievement by reaching the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup, after overcoming the obstacle of its Australian counterpart on penalty kicks (5-3), in the confrontation hosted by the Dallas Cowboys Stadium on July 3, 2026, in the round of 32 competitions.
The match witnessed the achievement of a number of records and remarkable statistics that documented the superiority of the “Pharaohs” and the complexity of the Australian team in the qualifying rounds:
Egyptian continental achievements on penalties
- The Egyptian team has become the second African team in the history of the World Cup to win on penalties, joining the Moroccan team, which achieved the same feat twice (against Spain in 2022 and the Netherlands in 2026).
- This confrontation is the first in history for both teams to refer to penalty kicks in the World Cup. This is the first time that two teams have tested these kicks for the first time in their history in one match since the meeting between Denmark and Croatia in the round of 16 in the 2018 edition.
Salah sits on the throne of “The Makers” and Ashour enters history
- The “Pharaohs” attack showed clear ferocity in the 2026 edition, as the team scored 6 goals during 4 matches, a number exceeding the total scored by the team in its previous three participations combined (5 goals: two goals in 1934, one goal in 1990, and two goals in 2018).
- Ashour’s achievement: By scoring two goals in this edition, Imam Ashour joined a golden list that includes only 3 Egyptian players who were able to score more than one goal in one World Cup edition, namely Abdel Rahman Fawzi (in 1934) and Mohamed Salah (in 2018).
- Commander Mohamed Salah continued to prove his quality, topping the list of players who created the most chances in the 2026 World Cup with 16 chances (on par with Belgian Leandro Trossard), including 5 chances in the Australia match alone.
Summary of Egypt’s victory over Australia
An Australian curse and reverse records
- The curse of the playoffs continued to haunt Australia, as it exited the tournament from this stage in all three of its attempts: against Italy (in 2006), Argentina (in 2022), and Egypt (in 2026).
- Australia has benefited from only two own goals throughout the history of its World Cup participation, and ironically, both were the team’s only goals in the knockout rounds (Argentine Enzo Fernandez’s goal in 2022, and Egyptian Mohamed Hani’s goal in 2026).
- The own goal scored by Mohamed Hani was number 13 in the 2026 World Cup, setting a new record for the largest number of own goals in one edition, surpassing the previous record recorded in the 2018 World Cup (12 goals).
