New Zealand 1-3 Egypt - 2026 World Cup Match Report and Player Ratings

Mo Salah Stars as Egypt Claim First-Ever World Cup Win

An inspired second-half performance from Egypt led them to an emotional first-ever win at a World Cup finals at the expense of New Zealand.

Defender Finn Surman had headed home brilliantly in the first half to hand the Kiwis the lead, but a goal and an assist each from Mohamed Salah and Mostafa Ziko won the day in the end, much to the delight of the travelling Egyptian contingency.

New Zealand 1-3 Egypt As It Happened

The first chance of the game landed just beyond the 13 minute mark, and it was a gorgeous bit of play to carve it out. A quick passing manoveur around the left-hand side released the in-form Elijah Just into the channel. The Motherwell winger and Celtic target shot low and hard, but Mostafa Shobeir got down to turn the ball around the post.

But from the resultant corner, the Kiwis would get their breakthrough thanks to a towering header from Finn Surman.

The corner came in from viral sensation Tim Payne, finding Portland Timbers defender Surman free in the box on his club-home soil. He rose perfectly through a loose portion of Egyptian marking, and planted the header home with power to claim the lead.

Emam Ashour would set up a fine effort for Omar Marmoush shortly after the hydration break. After finding some rare room out on the left, after Mohamed Salah had tried to release a colleague in behind New Zealand twice, he cut it onto the edge for the Manchester City star to strike, bending an effort from range that was well saved by Max Crocombe.

On the brink of halftime, goalscorer Surman would do his defensive duties perfectly to deny Ashour a tap-in leveller. A good cross came in from the right by Marmoush, flying across the face of goal for the winger. He went to meet it, but young Surman threw himself at the chance to put him off enough into missing the target from close range.

Halftime Score - New Zealand 1-0 Egypt

New Zealand followed in from their strong first half with a big chance withing five minutes of the restart. A low, flat long ball flew in towards Callum McCowatt in the area, who drew some inspiration from compatriot Chris Wood with a spinning, backwards header that Shobeir had to be sharp to to keep out.

But they would be left to rue that missed opportunity, as Egypt would grab a leveller from the blue just a few minutes before the hour mark.

A great cross in from right-back Mohamed Hany would find winger Mostafa Ziko between Surman and Payne, and like the former-mentioned Kiwi he planted a powerful header past Crocombe to level the match.

And just ten minutes later, Egypt and New Zealand would bow to the king once more.

He assisted in the impressive opening-day draw with Belgium, and got a fine goal to put Egypt ahead with a little over 20 left. New Zealand committed the crime of affording the Liverpool legend too much room on the right flank - not doing so had before allowed him to stay mostly quiet throughout - and he cut in and fed a neat one-two with Ziko before burying a low, curling effort into the bottom corner to get into the ascendancy.

Whatever changes Hossam Hassan deployed at half-time and during the breaks clearly did the trick, as with ten minutes on the clock Trezeguet would come off the bench and straight into the goals.

A corner was delivered from the left by Salah, and it picked out the former Aston Villa man perfectly in the area with New Zealand falling ill of the poor marking that had seen them take the lead initially. He stooped low into the shot, beating Crocombe with accuracy to put Egypt two to the good and inches away from a first-ever World Cup finals win.

Substitute Zizo should have added a fourth, but somehow didn't manage to after easing his way around Crocombe to face up with an open goal, but he took too long to settle himself and saw his goal-bound shot blocked by the 'keeper.

Egypt hung on through a couple of New Zealand chances, brought about by a long throw from Michael Boxall and a mazy run from substitute Jesse Randall, but they held on firmly for an emotional first-ever win on the World Cup stage.

Full-time Score - New Zealand 1-3 Egypt

New Zealand Player Ratings

• Max Crocombe (6)

• Tim Payne (7)

• Finn Surman (7)

• Michael Boxall (5)

• Liberato Cacace (5)

• Joe Bell (6)

• Marko Stamenic (6)

• Sarpreet Singh (6)

• Elijah Just (7)

• Callum McCowatt (7)

• (C) Chris Wood (5)

• Ben Old (6)

• Ryan Thomas (6)

• Jesse Randall (6)

• Tyler Bindon (6)

• Francis de Vries (6)

Egypt Player Ratings

• Mostafa Ahmed Shobeir (7)

• Mohamed Hany (7)

• Yasser Ibrahim (6)

• Hamdi Fathi (5)

• Ahmed Abou El Fotouh (6)

• Marwan Ateya (6)

• Mohanad Lasheen (7)

• (C) Mohamed Salah (9)

• Emam Ashour (7)

• Mostafa Ziko (8)

• Omar Marmoush (7)

• Rami Rabia (7)

• Trezeguet (8)

• Hamza Abdelkarim (6)

• Hossam Abdelmaguid (6)

• Zizo (4)

Man of the Match - Mohamed Salah

The Egyptian King 👑

Mo Salah steps up for Egypt when they need him most! pic.twitter.com/LCsi9rrduK

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 22, 2026

Who else, when Egypt need a hero?

A goal and an assist from the Egyptian king was enough to put his nation into the lead and then solidify it too. A quiet first-half still left New Zealand with danger-pricked ears whenever he got onto the ball, and they were punished well by the winger when Egypt hit a flow state in the second half.

Bad Day at the Office - Nobody

Yes it's boring, but we don't feel strongly enough to attribute this tag to anyone in this game.

New Zealand's strong first half capitulated in the end through a team effort of bad marking and good quality from the Egyptians, but the long and short is that there were no rotters in this one.