Essam El-Hadary (8.5): The Egyptian keeper made history by becoming the oldest player to appear at the World Cup, at the age of 45 years and 161 days. An unused sub in the first two games, he made it to the starting 11 against Saudi Arabia. El-Hadary made several important saves, mostly denying Fahad Al-Muwallad from the spot. Ahmed Fathi (6.5): The versatile right-back was solid at the back but didn't make any forays upfront and was guilty of a penalty kick, as he was judged to have touched the ball with his hands in the area. Fortunately for him El-Hadary denied it. Ahmed Hegazi (7): The towering defender was able to clear all the danger coming from arial balls and intercepting most of the passes in the area. Ali Gabr (6.5): Gabr was slightly better this game, containing most of the threat from the Saudis, but was judged to have fouled striker Al-Muwallad in the area. This penalty allowed the Saudis to equalise just before the break. Mohamed Abdel-Shafi (6.5): The left-back made a good impression in the first half, feeding his attackers with crosses that mostly went begging. He lost his pace in the second half and sat back on defence, but he wasn't of a great help there either. Tarek Hamed (6.5): He produced a lot of efforts, in an attempt to counter the Saudi attacks before they could become threatening, but was dropping too deep to give protection to his backline leaving possession to the rival side. Lacking creativity and imagination, he wasn't involved in the build-up play. Mohamed Elneny (6.5): The Arsenal midfielder failed to create the needed linkup between defence and offense and couldn't help the team gain possession against a revitalised Saudi team. He had only one attempt on target that went wide over the bar. Abdallah El-Said (7): The gifted playmaker was deployed on the right flank to allow Mohamed Salah to move to a more central role. El-Said sent an excellent long ball to Salah behind the defenders to score the opening goal of the game. He was injured before half time was replaced by Amr Warda. Mahmoud Trezeguet (6.5): He ran a lot, more than anybody on the pitch, having registered more than 7.5 km midway through the second half. He had two golden opportunities in the first half to kill the game but he squandered both while being in an easy position to score. Mohamed Salah (8.5): Salah was Egypt's deadliest weapon against Saudi Arabia. He scored the opening goal after lobbing the ball over the keeper. He could have doubled the lead when he went on a one-on-one with the keeper a few minutes later but his chip ball went next to the post. He also fed Trezeguet with a beautiful assist, but the latter blasted it away. While the Pharaohs were busy defending in the second half, he kept on making his darting runs, keeping the Saudi defenders on their toes. Marwan Mohsen (6.5): Playing as a lone striker, Mohsen had little impact on the game. He was isolated most of the time and failed to make a proper combination with Salah or Trezeguet in the final third. Amr Warda (6.5): Coming in as a substitute for injured Abdallah El-Said, he made tireless runs up and down the right wing and sent crosses into the box, but lacked the final touch to create a real threat on the Saudi goal. Ramadan Sobhi (6.5): The powerful winger came into the game midway the second half replacing Mohsen. He played on the left wing but most of his tricks and dribbles were intercepted. Mahmoud Kahraba (6.5): He had only 10 minutes of play, which was not enough space for him to make any impact. He had a golden chance to score when he was fed by Salah to go clear on target, but his shot from the edge of the area went directly into the hands of the keeper. (For more sports news and updates and a special World Cup 2018 coverage, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports)
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