Russia v Egypt, 19 June 2018

Kick-off: 9.00pm local Russia v Egypt was Match 17 of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Refereeing team: Referee: Enrique Caceres (Paraguay) Assistant Referee 1: Eduardo Cardozo (Paraguay) Assistant Referee 2: Juan Zorrilla (Paraguay) Fourth Official: Cüneyt Çakir (Turkey) Reserve AR: Bahattin Duran (Turkey) VAR: Massimilliano Irrati (Italy) This was the first meeting between Russia and Egypt. Russia failed to reach the knock-out stages of the World Cup finals in their three previous appearances (1994, 2002, 2014). After two wins from two games, there were now also certain to qualify for this tournament's round of 16 despite being the lowest FIFA ranked team (70th). Russia had now equalled Italy's record from 1934 for the most goals scored by the host nation in their first two games of a World Cup finals (eight). Egypt had now failed to win in their six games at the World Cup finals. Only Honduras had played in more games in the competition's finals without a win (nine). Mohamed Salah became the third player to score for Egypt at the World Cup finals after Abdelrahman Fawzi in 1934 and Magdy Abed El Ghani in 1990. Ten penalties had now been awarded at this World Cup finals; as many as those awarded at the entire group stage of Brazil 2014.