STAR WORLD CUP PREVIEW Mon: Belgium v Egypt

Belgium are as short as 4/9 to win Group G, but even that will look a good price if the Red Devils can take all three points from their opening encounter with Egypt at Lumen Field, Seattle, on Monday night, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

Belgium were a huge disappointment in Qatar four years ago, crashing out in the group stage, but there have been encouraging signs in the last 18 months and they’ve been handed what looks like a very favourable group draw – on paper, at least.

Rudi Garcia’s side head to the USA on a 13-game unbeaten run and there is a real sense of stability in the midfield thanks to the partnership of Aston Villa teammates Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans providing a defensive screen that enables top attacking talent like Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne, and Leo Trossard to create chances for Atalanta striker Charles De Ketelaere.

Egypt qualified for this tournament without any fuss at all, winning eight and drawing two of their 10 matches, conceding just two goals in the process. However, they were in a very weak section and are now going up several levels in class against Belgium as they go in search of a first win at the World Cup finals.

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Belgium v Egypt
FIFA World Cup Group G
20:00 BBC1

LAST FIVE STATS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
NOV 2022 FRIENDLY Belgium 1-2 Egypt
JUN 2018 FRIENDLY Belgium 3-0 Egypt
FEB 2005 FRIENDLY Egypt 4-0 Belgium
MAR 1999 FRIENDLY Belgium 0-1 Egypt

BELGIUM
JUN 2026 FRIENDLY Belgium 5-0 Tunisia
JUN 2026 FRIENDLY Croatia 0-2 Belgium
APR 2026 FRIENDLY Mexico 1-1 Belgium
MAR 2026 FRIENDLY USA 2-5 Belgium
NOV 2025 WC QUAL Belgium 7-0 Liechtenstein

EGYPT
JUN 2026 FRIENDLY Brazil 2-1 Egypt
MAY 2026 FRIENDLY Egypt 1-0 Russia
MAR 2026 FRIENDLY Spain 0-0 Egypt
MAR 2026 FRIENDLY Saudi Arabia 0-4 Egypt
JAN 2026 AFCON Egypt 0-0 Nigeria

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It might be hard to believe of a side that contains Premier League legend Mohamed Salah and Man City striker Omar Marmoush, but scoring goals has become quite a big issue for Egypt; they’ve not scored more than once in 13 of their last 17 games, one of which was that 0-0 draw in the AFCON semi-final against Nigeria, where they managed just one shot on target in the 90 minutes.

Fixtures against Iran and New Zealand can still provide Egypt with an opportunity to make it into the knockout stages of the tournament, but they are likely to struggle to contain a Belgium side that have goal threats all over the pitch.

Egypt’s impotence in front of goal looks a good angle into this opening game because we can get 17/10 about Belgium winning to nil, which makes infinitely more appeal than the 8/13 about a standard Red Devils victory.

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