Egypt 0-1 Uruguay Player Ratings: Super Gimenez

A 90th minute Jose Gimenez header saw Uruguay kick-off their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 win over Egypt. Here’s our player ratings from the game.

Egypt

After looking at this 2018 World Cup Tracker with odds on all the 32 teams, we can see that Egypt have their work cut out to qualify for the last 16. But how did their players rate?

Mohamed El-Shanawy – far less experienced than his opposite number, making just his fourth appearance for his country – in their first World Cup match for 28 years! He rose to the occasion brilliantly with two excellent second half stops. 9

Ahmed Fathy – his aggression allowed him to handle de Arrascaeta in the first half but rarely offered Egypt an option in possession. The quality of his crosses from deep was not the best. 5
Omar Gabir – hadn’t played much with West Brom but his strong relationship with Hegazi was evident at times, especially in the first half.  8
Ahmed Hegazi – looked strong in the air and won a number of aerial duels, but had more difficulties in the second half when Suarez and Cavani got possession in and around him. Suspect marking for the goal. 6
Mohamed Abdel-Shafy – showed good agility in the first half, when he was switched on defensively. Got forced too far back in the latter stages though. 4

Mohamed Elneny – hardworking and willing to impose his physicality, making him one of Egypt’s top performers. His passing range appears to have improved over the last 12 months, too. 7
Tarek Hamed – perhaps his aptitude for square, sideways passes sometimes denied Egypt opportunities to force Uruguay back, but his defensive qualities had helped deny space for Suarez and Cavani and were missed in the final half hour. 7

Amr Warda – pressed Caceres well and looked bright and comfortable with both feet, if not quite as technically refined as Mohamed Salah, in whose absence he started. 5
Abdallah Said – supposedly Egypt’s creative maestro in the number 10 role but didn’t have quite the influence he might have hoped for, although he was as important as Mohsen in terms of the work out of possession. 3
Trezeguet – couldn’t quite get into the game in a creative sense, although he at least restricted the influence of Varela and Nandez in the first hour. 3

Marwan Mohsen – pressed effectively in the first half but didn’t offer much in possession. Egypt weren’t expected to have a centre-forward with bags of quality, but a bit more pace and perhaps even arrogance was at times missing from Mohsen’s game. 3

Uruguay

Fernando Muslera – won 15 trophies in his career with Liguilla, Lazio, Galatasaray and Uruguay and that showed in the composed way he claimed crosses. Wasn’t overly tested. 6

Guillermo Varela – we didn’t see many of the reasons why Manchester United made him their first signing of the post-Fergie era five years ago. While his defensive capacity was rarely inspected, he was too tentative in his forward forays, partly due to a lack of upper-body strength. 4
Jose Gimenez – an excellent performance. Not only did he show aggression, positional awareness and one or two nice crossfield balls, he also headed home the late winner. 10
Diego Godin – never held back from a challenge, as one would expect from what we have seen from him at Atletico Madrid. There were times in the first half when he even looked like he was Uruguay’s most creative player, due to his sporadic ventures into opposition territory. 9
Martin Caceres – looked reluctant to truly express himself, as we might expect from a right-footed player playing left-back. This limited Uruguay going forward because play slowed down and went inside into more compact areas. 3

Nahitan Nandes – pressed high up on the right in the first half and the central midfielders did not always have the numbers or energy to back that up. A little distant from the action. 4
Rodrigo Bentacur – looked bright early on but then struggled to get past the imposing figure of Elneny and therefore get closer to the front two. His lack of physicality was a serious problem. 4
Mathias Vecino – a lot more confident with the physical side of the game than Bentacur, even if he lacked imagination with his passing. One powerful but well off-target first half shot was the extent of his attacking contributions. 7

Giorgian de Arrascaeta – the fact he was right footed but played on the left was problematic: in the absence of a left-footed operator near him, he was unable to get the better of Fathy. 3
Luis Suarez – tried to instigate a press that was more aggressive than the four man midfield could manage and became frustrated as a result. Hit the side-netting with a back-post chance in the first half, but managed to bring his partner more into play after the break. 5
Edinson Cavani – stayed too far forward when the midfield needed another player willing to influence proceedings in the middle third. That said, in the second half he was more influential, producing a stinging drive and a free-kick that hit the post. 7