Egypt face Argentina today in the fight for a place in the quarter-finals. Ahead of taking on defending champions Argentina, Egypt has issued a warning to Lionel Messi and company.
Egypt beat Australia on penalties in the round of 32, with the team’s biggest star, Mohamed Salah, taking the decisive final shot. He knows this could be his last World Cup.
Ahead of facing Argentina, Salah said: “I don’t know if this is my last World Cup. So I’m playing every match as if it’s a final. This is the biggest match of my football career, and I’ll go into it with that mindset.”
Team director Ibrahim Hassan has full confidence in Salah. He said any opponent underestimating Salah — who has scored 257 goals in the Premier League and won the Golden Boot four times — will suffer for it. “We’re not thinking about Messi. I’ve told our boys to go out and play their own game. Show them who they’re up against,” he said.
Hassan expressed confidence not just in Salah but the entire squad. “They may have Messi. We have Salah. He can finish off any opponent on his own. We have 26 Messis in our squad,” he said.
Argentina coach Scaloni is treating Egypt with respect. He never underestimates an opponent, and won’t for this match either. At a press conference ahead of the game, Scaloni said: “Egypt is a tough team. They’ve come this far by playing good football. We have another difficult fight ahead of us. We’re going in with one thing in mind — we have to win.”
While Scaloni is unlikely to change his approach against Egypt, he may make changes to the lineup. “I know who I’ll field. I won’t say now. But I might play a few who haven’t had much game time so far — they’re fresh, and that will help us,” he said.
Scaloni added: “We’ve won all four of our matches. I’m happy about that. But the other day, we lacked pace in defense, which let Cape Verde get on the ball. We like to play dynamic football even while defending. We’ll need to do that against Egypt.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report