Egypt’s national football team concluded their African qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Guinea-Bissau on Sunday in the tenth round of Group A, which they topped decisively, securing their fourth-ever World Cup appearance.

The official website of the Egyptian Football Association highlighted the national team’s key achievements following this great accomplishment, including important records set by the Pharaohs both collectively and individually.

Egypt qualified for the finals without a single loss in 10 matches played, the first time achieving this success since the second edition of the qualifiers in 1934, when they played only two matches against Palestine.

Coach Hossam Hassan’s men achieved 8 wins in these qualifiers out of 10 matches, an 80% win rate, the highest in their history in group-stage qualifiers. Previously, they had 9 wins in 13 matches in the 2010 qualifiers with a 69.23% win rate.

The team collected 26 points during their campaign, one of the highest totals among African teams that have already qualified, including the Arab trio Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, as well as African teams like Ghana, which secured Group 9 with 25 points.

Egypt conceded only two goals throughout the qualifiers, averaging 0.2 goals per match, their best defensive record ever in qualifiers. In 1990 qualifiers, they also conceded two goals but in 8 matches, averaging 0.25 goals per game.

The team kept a clean sheet in their last six qualifying matches against Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, and Guinea-Bissau, totaling 588 minutes without conceding since Mama Baldé of Guinea-Bissau scored at the 42nd minute in the fourth round. This is a record not achieved in the previous 15 times Egypt participated in qualifiers.

The goal difference for Egypt in these qualifiers was +18, the best margin in their 16 World Cup qualifying campaigns, surpassing the +15 in 2010.

Hossam Hassan led Egypt in 8 World Cup qualifying matches plus 6 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, achieving 10 wins and 4 draws without any losses, marking one of the best starts for any national coach in Egypt’s history since 1920.

Mohamed El-Shenawy’s teammates topped Group A by 5 points over Burkina Faso, the largest margin in Egypt’s qualification history. The 1990 generation topped Group B by 2 points over Liberia before the decisive stage against Algeria, and in 2018 Egypt secured qualification with a 4-point lead over Uganda.

Egypt scored 20 goals in 10 matches, averaging 2 goals per game, the fourth-best tally in their World Cup qualifying history after 2006 (26 goals), and the 2002 and 2010 editions (22 goals each).

Mohamed Salah scored 9 goals, leading the scoring charts for Egypt and the qualifiers overall, one goal ahead of Gabonese Denis Bouanga, who plays his last qualifier today against Burundi in Group 5.

The Egyptian captain raised his World Cup qualifying goal tally to 20, becoming the all-time top scorer in qualifiers, two goals ahead of Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba, Burkina Faso’s Mamouni Dagano, and Algeria’s Islam Slimani, who share second place with 18 goals.

Beyond the deserved qualification, Hossam Hassan gave opportunities to many new faces in the Egyptian team for the first time, notably goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir, Khaled Sobhi, Mohamed Rabia, Ahmed Eid, Mohand Lashien, Ahmed Nabil “Koka”, Mohamed Shehata, Nasser Maher, and Mahmoud Saber.