Egypt and Belgium…a negative and unprecedented number for the “Pharaohs” in the World Cup | sports

On Monday, the Egyptian team played a strong and balanced match against Belgium and was close to achieving its first victory in the history of the World Cup, but the match that ended in a positive draw witnessed a number of remarkable numbers for the Pharaohs team, which we review as follows:

During 8 matches in the tournament since the first participation in 1934, the “Pharaohs” have not yet been able to achieve any victory in the World Cup (3 draws and 5 defeats), which is the second largest number of matches without a win for any team in the history of the tournament after Honduras (9 matches).

For the first time in the history of Egypt in the World Cup, and after 7 previous matches, the first half of any match for the Pharaohs ends with a result other than a draw, after Imam Ashour advanced for the Pharaohs in the 19th minute.

Egypt’s first rounds in previous tournaments always ended in a draw: Hungary (2-2) in the 1934 World Cup. (0-0) against the Netherlands, Ireland and England in the 1990 World Cup. (0-0) against Uruguay and Russia and (1-1) against Saudi Arabia in the 2018 World Cup.

Egyptian national team midfielder Mohannad Lashin made 8 successful attempts to intercept the ball against Belgium, which is the largest number of successful attempts for any player so far in the 2026 World Cup.

Hamza Abdel Karim came on as a substitute for Mohamed Salah after 76 minutes, becoming the youngest Egyptian player ever in a World Cup (18 years and 165 days).

Mohamed Hani’s own goal, which tied the score for Belgium, was the third own goal in the 2026 World Cup, a number more than all the own goals scored in the entire 22nd World Cup (two goals).

Despite not scoring, Mohamed Salah assisted Egypt’s only goal against Belgium, and today coincided with his celebration of turning 34 years old, becoming the first African player to make a scoring contribution in the World Cup on his birthday.

Belgium…numbers mean a lot

On the other hand, Belgium’s numbers in the confrontation were very negative, including:

Belgian players fired 46 shots in a row in the World Cup (15 of them in today’s match against Egypt) without scoring any goal, while their goal against the “Pharaohs” was a reverse goal and was scored by mistake by Egyptian right-back Mohamed Hani.

Michy Batshuayi was the one who scored Belgium’s last goal in the World Cup during its match against Canada in the first round of the 2022 World Cup.

Belgium has failed to win its last three World Cup matches (two draws and a loss).

Jeremy Doku became the second Belgian player on record (since 1966) to make 8 dribbles and receive 5 fouls in one World Cup match, preceded only by veteran Eden Hazard against Panama in the 2018 edition (9 dribbles and 5 fouls).