Egypt knockout Australia on penalties to book Round of 16 spot on day six of the World Cup round of 32

Friday brought the final day of Round of 32 action in the 2026 World Cup, with the last 3 games played and the last 6 nations finally finding out what fate the footballing gods had in store for them. In the opening game of the day, the runners-up in Group D, Australia, faced off with the runners-up in Group G, Egypt. 

Tony Popovic opted to keep the same starting line-up that played in the 0-0 draw with Paraguay in their final group stage game. The setup was the same too, a 3-4-2-1 formation with Nestory Irankunda leading the line, Jackson Irvine and Aiden O’Neill as the central midfield duo, and the towering presence of captain Harry Soutar as the central defender of the back three. 

Hossam Hassan made five changes to the starting XI that began the 1-1 draw against Iran in their final group stage game. Mohamed Abdelmonem, Mohanad Lasheen, Mahmoud Saber, Ahmed Aboul-Fatouh, and Mahmoud Trezeguet all came out of the lineup and were replaced by Yasser Ibrahim, Marwan Attia, Hamdy Fathy, Omar Marmoush, and Karim Hafex, who was making his first appearance at the 2026 World Cup. 

World Cup Round of 32 – Australia vs Egypt

Australia came close to grabbing a very early goal in the opening moments of the game when Cristian Volpato had a strike from long distance, but it just clipped the top of the crossbar, and the game stayed 0-0. 

Nearly 10 minutes after the Volpato strike, the deadlock was broken, but it wasn’t the Aussies celebrating when an initial Emam Ashour strike was blocked; Egypt recycled the ball through a brilliant Karim Hafez ball into the back post, and Ashour headed home completely unmarked to put Egypt 1-0 up. 

The game slowed down after a frantic opening 15 minutes, and at 35 minutes, saw the next chance for either side when Aziz Behich struck from outside the box, well saved by Mostafa Shobeir in the Egyptian goal. Volpato had another chance in stoppage time but put his shot wide of the post, and then Nestory Irankunda had a header inside the box that just went wide of the right post. Egypt went into the halftime break with a lead of just the one goal. 

Right from the off in the 2nd half, Egypt had a golden chance to double their advantage when Omar Marmoush was sent through over the top one-on-one with the keeper, but somehow the Egyptian forward dragged his shot wide, and the miss would come back to haunt them later. 

2 minutes after the miss from Marmoush, Australia had a golden chance of getting an equalizer when a ball into the back post was met by Connor Metcalfe, but the forward couldn’t direct it into the corner and put his header wide of the post. 

Thankfully for the Socceroos, they found their equalizer 55 minutes into the game when a brilliant free kick delivery caused the Egypt defense all sorts of problems, and Mohamed Hany ended up heading the ball into his own net, his 2nd own goal of this tournament, to pull Australia level at 1-1. 

The next 30 minutes of the 2nd half were full of both teams trying to find the winner, but creating no big chances. Australia defended fantastically and threw themselves in front of everything Egypt was throwing at them, and Australia just couldn’t quite connect with crosses of their own going forward. 

3 minutes into stoppage time, everyone thought Egypt had scored a late winner when Ramy Rabia found himself open in the box, and his header looked destined for the back of the net if it wasn’t for an unbelievable reaction save from Patrick Beach for Australia. Harry Souttar then blocked a shot destined for the bottom corner, and somehow the teams went into extra time. 

Extra time wasn’t filled with a lot of big action, just more blocked shots and close calls from crosses and set pieces. The biggest chance fell just a couple of minutes into the extra 30 minutes to Mohamed Salah, but his shot at the front post was just too high. We headed to penalties, with Australia to go first. 

Captain and talented center-back Harry Souttar stepped up first for the Socceroos, but he sent his penalty flying over the crossbar for the worst start possible. Mohmoud Saber took Egypt’s penalty and blasted it into the left corner to put Egypt 1-0 up after 1 penalty each. 

Jackson Irvine stepped up for the Aussies’ 2nd penalty and took it brilliantly, placing it into the top right-hand corner to level the scores 1-1. The scores didn’t stay level for long, though, as Ramy Rabia slotted his penalty and Egypt’s 2nd penalty away to make it 2-1. 

Awer Mabil converted Australia’s 3rd penalty when he put it down the middle of the goal to make it 2-2, but nothing was topping Mohamed Salah’s penalty when he panenka’d it past Matt Ryan to put Egypt 3-2 up. 

18 year old defender Lucas Herrington was up next for Australia and unfortunately for the kid, he smashed his penalty off the crossbar so the scoreline stayed 3-2 to Egypt and it was all down to Hossam Abdelmaguid, score and Egypt make the Round of 16 and that’s exactly what he did with Egypt taking the penalty shootout 4-2, setting up a Round of 16 game with the winners of Argentina vs Cape Verde. 

Day 1 of the Round of 16

Saturday is the opening day of Round of 16 action in the 2026 FIFA World Cup as we edge ever closer to that highly anticipated final. 2 games take place to open the Round of 16, with co-hosts Canada taking on Morocco in the first game, followed by Paraguay taking on France to end the day. 

Canada vs. Morocco	Saturday, July 4, 1 pm ET	NRG Stadium, Houston	Fox, Fox One, Telemundo, Peacock
Paraguay vs. France	Saturday, July 4, 5 pm ET	Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia	Fox, Fox One, Telemundo, Peacock