Australia and Egypt meet at Dallas Stadium on Friday in the World Cup Round of 32, with one team booking a last-16 meeting with reigning champions Argentina and the other booking flights home. Both reached the knockout rounds for the first time at this tournament, and both are coached by Australian or Egyptian minds who treat this as the start, not the summit, of their campaign.
Egypt advanced with a 1-1 draw against Iran in Seattle to finish second in Group G on five points, level with Belgium but behind on goal difference. Australia drew 0-0 with Paraguay to finish second in Group D on four points, two behind co-hosts the United States. The Pharaohs are the tournament’s story in one respect: their 3-1 win over New Zealand was their first at any World Cup and pulled them into the knockout stage at the fourth attempt. For the Socceroos, the prize is no smaller. Australia has never won a knockout-stage match at a men’s World Cup, and that zero is the number head coach Tony Popovic has in his sights in Arlington.
Two Routes, One Door
The Socceroos’ path to Dallas was built on a defensive foundation and a single young forward’s signature afternoon. Popovic’s side beat Turkey 2-0 in Vancouver, lost 1-0 to the United States in Seattle, then closed the group with a 0-0 draw against Paraguay that was enough to go through on goal difference. The clean sheet against the South Americans, in a match Australia could have lost and still qualified, was the cleanest of the three performances and the one that decided the group.
Egypt’s route was louder. A 1-1 draw with Belgium in the opener gave way to the 3-1 win over New Zealand, where captain Mohamed Salah scored the second in a 67th-minute swing, and then the result that mattered most: the 1-1 draw with Iran that delivered second place in the group on head-to-head and goals scored. Egypt’s five points matched Belgium’s. The Netherlands and the rest of the heavyweights in their half of the bracket watched the same scoreline in Seattle and concluded that the Pharaohs are now the team nobody wants in the last 16.
Friday’s winner travels to face Argentina, whose captain is the same player who lifted the trophy in Qatar. The loser is done.
The King Returns
Salah left the Iran match in Seattle 33 minutes from the end with a hamstring strain, the same complaint that kept him out for three weeks at the end of Liverpool’s 2025-26 Premier League season. Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said on Thursday that he would not risk the 34-year-old unless he was “100 percent sure he is fit and raring to go,” and confirmed a partial return to training on Wednesday after the Egyptian Football Association posted photos of Salah back on the pitch at the team’s Spokane base under the caption “The King is back.”
Salah has scored once and assisted two more in Egypt’s three group games, a return that puts him at the centre of every defensive plan Australia will draw up. Hassan praised his captain’s tactical discipline: “I have managed to deploy him tactically and technically speaking and he has surpassed the capabilities that people had expected of him so far.” Hassan also played down any advantage Australia might claim from a Salah absence: “Maradona wasn’t the tallest of players, Messi isn’t either. It’s not about tall or short. We’re not playing rugby here, we’re playing football.”
Australia, for its part, has prepared for both versions of the night. Popovic said his side were ready “with or without Salah,” a stance that reflects Australia’s longer-term read on the Pharaohs: they are not a one-man team, but they are a different one-man team without him.
The Teenager Asked to Mark Him
If Salah starts, the Socceroos’ first idea will be Lucas Herrington. The 18-year-old Colorado Rapids defender made his World Cup debut in the 0-0 draw with Paraguay, became the youngest Australian to start a men’s World Cup match, kept a clean sheet and was told by teammate Harry Souttar afterward that he played like a “Rolls-Royce,” a comparison Souttar borrowed from his own £15 million move from Australia to Leicester in 2023.
Herrington is in the shop window, and the window is open. The Guardian reported that his next transfer is expected to fetch a price close to or higher than Souttar’s record, and that Spanish club Barcelona is among the suitors. Brisbane Roar, his former A-League club, negotiated a 20 percent sell-on clause with Colorado before this tournament and then sold that clause for around A$500,000, a decision that is likely to cost the Australian club millions when the next move lands.
Herrington, for his part, says he is not reading the speculation. “I’m just trying to stay present and really enjoy this moment,” he told the Guardian. “It’s my first one, hopefully first of many, but it doesn’t come around very often.” Asked about facing Salah specifically, he was clear about what he wants from the night: “It’s nice to face players like that. Really, that’s where you want to be, that’s who you want to play against. So to be given that opportunity, hopefully, it’ll be special, and I can’t wait.”
That was the best moment of my life. I knew how important that game was, not just for us but for the whole country. I’d dreamt of that moment since I was a kid and I just really wanted to embrace it, enjoy it.
Houdini and the Refugee Camp
Australia’s attacking hope carries a different kind of weight. Nestory Irankunda, the Watford forward on loan from Bayern Munich, scored the opening goal in the 2-0 win over Turkey and broke the record for Australia’s youngest World Cup goalscorer in the process, aged 20 years and 125 days. The previous mark belonged to Brett Holman, who scored against Ghana at the 2010 World Cup at 26 years and 84 days.
Irankunda’s route to that record runs through three continents. He was born in a refugee camp in Kigoma, Tanzania, in 2006 to Burundian parents who had fled the country’s civil war. Adelaide United signed him as a teenager, Bayern Munich took him to Germany in 2023, he never broke into the senior side there, and Watford brought him to England’s second tier in July 2025, where he scored four goals in 40 Championship appearances as the Hornets finished 16th. His Watford teammate Mohamed Toure gave him the nickname “Houdini,” a tag that fits both his footwork and the path out of Kigoma.
Popovic named ten players making their World Cup debuts against Turkey. Irankunda was one, and his record stood up on the night. “It is unreal and a dream come true,” he said after being named player of the match against the Turks. Friday will be the first time he has played in a knockout match at a World Cup, and the stage he was 14 and watching on a fan-zone screen at the 2022 tournament in Qatar, the same Herrington was watching in Brisbane, before either of them had signed a professional contract.
The Pharaohs and Their Ambition
Egypt’s bench has its own history. Hossam Hassan manages the team, and his twin brother Ibrahim Hassan sits alongside him as team director. The pair are long-time fixtures in Egyptian football as players and coaches, and neither has ever been shy about sharing an opinion. Ibrahim drew criticism in April when he suggested Salah’s hamstring injury had ended his Liverpool career, a forecast that aged poorly once Salah featured in Liverpool’s final two Premier League matches. Ibrahim also told reporters before this World Cup that Egypt always “outperforms all Arab teams,” a claim that drew a raised eyebrow from Morocco’s camp after their run to the semi-finals in Qatar four years ago.
The Hassan twins have not dialled down the volume since the knockout round was confirmed. Ibrahim spoke to the squad this week and set the bar in his own terms: “Our first goal is to make the Egyptian fans happy, and what has been achieved so far does not mean that we have reached our goal. We have great ambitions, and we dream of continuing the journey and reaching the furthest point possible in the tournament, and we do not set a ceiling for our ambitions.” Hossam has not contradicted him in public.
Popovic was asked the same question in San Francisco earlier this week and gave a parallel answer in different words: “The history gets made after the game.” Both coaches have signed up to the same line, that the Round of 32 is the start of the tournament and not the end of it. One of them is wrong on Friday.
What Friday Settles
Australia and Egypt have met only twice in senior international football, both in friendlies in the late 1990s. Neither meeting took place at a World Cup, and neither offered a hint of what the Dallas evening holds. The Socceroos are 14 places below Egypt in FIFA’s world rankings and start as the bookmakers’ outsider. Egypt have won two of their three group games and drawn the third.
Friday’s match begins at 18:00 GMT at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas, refereed by Gustavo Tejera. The winner plays the United States, the tournament co-hosts, in the last 16. The loser’s World Cup ends at 11 matches in, four years before North America hosts again.
