⚽️ Kick-off time: 8pm local/1pm AEST/4am BST/11pm EDT
⚽️ Third-place table | Player guide | Golden Boot | Mail Sam
⚽️ Egypt v Iran – follow live with Jonathan Howcroft
New Zealand, meanwhile, will be kicking themselves for not taking more from their ultimate 3-1 loss against Egypt. An excellent headed goal to Finn Surman in the 15th minute epitomised the All Whites’ dominant first-half display, staying compact and disciplined in defence and charging forward with direct long balls and overlaps in attack.
But Egypt, led by their talismanic captain Mohamed Salah, came roaring back in the second half, coming from behind to score three unanswered goals and rocket to the top of the group as a result.
“It’s frustrating,” Bazeley said after the Egypt match. “We played so well in the first half. We scored a great goal, created lots of chances, felt like we were dominating possession a lot of the time in the first half, and we were comfortable. We weren’t really getting hurt.
“We talked well at half-time, looked at some things we can do a little bit better, we went out second half and we just weren’t able to recreate the tempo and quality that we showed in the first half.”
Their record at major tournaments now reads two wins from their past nine matches, one from their past six, against Romania at Euro 2024. They have had a total of 38 shots in their opening two games in the US without scoring themselves, their sole goal coming courtesy of the Egypt defender Mohamed Hany. They missed the energy of Jérémy Doku, who was absent through illness, while Romelu Lukaku, making his first start for club or country for more than 12 months, huffed and puffed in attack.
Sometimes when you have to win, sometimes that’s the best situation. Obviously we had wished to start better. But, just like cyclists, we have to keep pedalling on and on and show we deserve to move on to the round of 32.