A 90th-minute winner from Jose Gimenez has handed Uruguay victory in their opening match of the 2018 World Cup as an Egypt side lacking Mohamed Salah fell to a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat.
Uruguay were far from their best throughout at the Ekeratinburg Arena and it looked as though a series of wasted chances from record-scorer Luis Suarez would prove costly for the Group A favourites.
However, Gimenez’s towering late header – which came just moments after Edinson Cavani had hit the post with a free kick – rescued all three points for the South Americans to take them level with hosts Russia at the top of the standings.
It would prove to be a miserable first half for the vaunted front two of Cavani and Luis Suarez, the latter of whom squandered the two best Uruguayan chances of the opening 45 minutes.
A scoring chance fell to record-scorer Suarez when he latched on to Cavani’s lofted ball inside the area, but this time he was thwarted by a big save from El Shenawy, who spread himself to deny the striker from close range.
Egypt’s first meaningful shot on target did not arrive until the 72nd minute when Ahmed Fathy fired a well-struck first-time effort towards goal from all of 25 yards out, but Fernando Muslera watched it all the way and held on to it well.
The calls for Salah to be handed a brief cameo grew louder heading into the final 10 minutes when Egypt squandered a couple of good chances to break in quick succession, but they were soon ended for good when Cuper made his third and final change.
Uruguay may well have felt that it wouldn’t be their day when Cavani’s 88th-minute free kick crashed back off the post with the keeper beaten, and even more so when the rebound fell to Martin Caceres, whose shot into an open goal was inadvertently blocked by his own teammate Carlos Sanchez.
However, Gimenez climbed highest from the corner which followed that scramble, making the ball his and planting a firm header into the corner to send Uruguay’s fans and players wild courtesy of their first opening-match win at a World Cup since 1970.
By contrast Egypt were left distraught as their wait for a first ever World Cup win went on, although Salah will be expected to add more firepower to their attack for upcoming games against Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Uruguay, meanwhile, will face Saudi Arabia in their next group game before taking on hosts Russia on June 25.
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