Russia – Egypt

The host of the World Cup Russia couldn’t start the competition in a better way. Sbornaya enjoyed a 5-0 win against Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the tournament, which was truly an impressive performance by Stanislav Cherchesov’s team. Now the Russian team faces Egypt in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg. They know that if they beat the Pharaohs, they will reach the 1/8-finals. In same time the Egyptian team is aware that they need to win this one after the heartbreaking loss in the last minutes against Uruguay. These are our vip soccer predictions today for the clash between Russia and Egypt.

Many people in Russia was worried before the start of the tournament that their team is not in the best possible condition for the World Cup. Sbornaya was hardly impressing during the friendly games, plus this team lacks any stars of a huge calibre. With the only exception being maybe Aleksandr Golovin, who may move to a much bigger club after the end of the tournament. Golovin also scored one of the goals against Saudi Arabia in the first game.

What happened against the Green Falcons brought some peace among the Russian teams. Although Saudi Arabia should not be a factor in this case, Sbornaya’s fans are much more calm after the 5-0 win. That’s what Russia needs right now – to increase its confidence and find a good rhythm.

The match against Egypt is crussial for the host country, because they know that a win against the Pharaohs will mean a qualification for the 1/8-finals. For Russia it’s a question of big importance to reach the knockout phase of the World Cup. This is the big goal in front of the team. Taking into account that Russia are playing against Uruguay in the third round of the group, a loss against Egypt would mean a huge risk for them and their ambitions.

Egypt on the other hand had a real heartbreak in the first round, conceding a goal in the last minutes against Uruguay. Even without the injured superstar Mohamed Salah, the Pharaohs were very close to winning the point against La Celeste. Just a minute before the 90th minute the central defender Jose Gimenez scored and made Uruguay victorious.

Of course, everyone in Egypt is asking the same question now – will Mo Salah play against the hosts? The winger injured his shoulder during the Champions League final against Real Madrid and he’s out since then. There were some expectations that Salah will return on the pitch against Uruguay, but he remained on the bench during the whole 90 minutes. Clearly he didn’t have a green light to play, which made it impossible for the manager Hector Cuper to use him.

Cuper will hope that Salah would be ready to face Russia. Right now his team needs him more than ever. The Egyptian team is aware that a win over Russia will move them very close to the 1/8-finals, especially with playing against Saudi Arabia in the third round. For Egypt it’d be an enormous boost to have Mo Salah in the team.

Russia’s problems are related to the injury of CSKA Moscow’s Alan Dzagoev. The midfielder injured himself against Saudi Arabia. He was then replaced by Villarreal’s Denis Cheryshev, who scored two goals for the 5-0 win. We can expect that Cheryshev will start against the Pharaohs, after his impressive performance against the Green Falcons.

These are our vip soccer predictions today for the World Cup clash between Russia and Egypt. We wish you good luck!