Belgium and Egypt draw 1-1 in World Cup Group G opener
The opening match of Group G in Seattle ended in a 1-1 draw, with a contested early goal for Egypt and a late equaliser forced by Romelu Lukaku.
Belgium and Egypt drew 1-1 in their World Cup Group G opener in Seattle on Monday, 15 June 2026.
Accounts differ on who scored Egypt's early goal. According to multiple outlets, Emam Ashour netted the opening goal around the 19th minute, while Al Arabiya reported that Mahmoud Saber scored in the fifth minute. Romelu Lukaku entered the match about an hour in and, 22 seconds after coming on, forced an own‑goal by Mohamed Hany to give Belgium the equaliser.
The match was attended by 66,775 spectators, according to Sky Sports. Al Arabiya also reported that Egypt advanced past the group stage for the first time and finished second in Group G, and that Belgium later beat New Zealand 4‑1 in Vancouver to win the group outright.
This account was written only from facts that survived Augur's
corroboration pass — 3 corroborated across opposed news blocs,
1 contested (attributed to both sides), 6
single-source (attributed). Nothing was added; no significance was inferred.
Model Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.
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