After appearances at the 1934, 1990 and 2018 World Cups, Egypt made history by securing their first-ever match win at the 2026 edition co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Egypt achieved the feat on Monday by coming from a goal down to win 3-1 in their second Group G match at BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, against New Zealand, who have yet to win a World Cup match.

Tim Payne opened the scoring in the 15th minute to put New Zealand ahead, and the lead was maintained into half-time.

However, Egypt turned things around in the second half by first drawing level in the 58th minute with a goal by Mostafa Zico, before Mohammed Salah in the 67th minute, and Mahmoud Trézéguet in the 82nd minute, sealed the maximum points.

With the other second-group match between Belgium and Iran on Saturday at SoFi Stadium in California ending goalless, Egypt now top the group with four points, followed by Iran and Belgium, who have two points apiece, while New Zealand is bottom with just a point.

Reacting after the match, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said, “I’m very happy with this victory, and I thank the entire Egyptian people for their support. This victory is dedicated to all Egyptians, both men and women. I’m extremely happy, and my feelings are similar to those of millions of Egyptians after this win.

“We were successful in the match and put in a great effort, especially after the first half, which we ended with a goal against us. However, our performance improved, and we managed to win in the second half.”

Hossam concluded his speech by saying: “I thank all the players, the technical and administrative staff. Everyone put in great effort to achieve the Egyptians’ dream in the World Cup.”

New Zealand’s coach, Darren Bazeley, stated that his team played 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,” said Bazeley. “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.”