Preview: Egypt vs Russia - prediction, team news, lineups

Egypt begin their preparations for the 2026 World Cup with a warm-up fixture against Russia at the Misr Stadium in Cairo on Thursday.

These two teams meet for the first time since the 2018 World Cup when host nation Russia celebrated a 3-1 victory in the group stage.

Match preview

After failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Egypt are gearing up for just their third appearance at football’s most prestigious tournament this summer after topping their CAF qualification group with eight wins and two draws in 10 matches.

Following the conclusion of World Cup qualifying, Egypt entered the 2025-26 African Cup of Nations as one of the favourites to lift the trophy, but they came up short in the semi-finals, losing 1-0 to Senegal before suffering defeat to Nigeria on penalties in the third-place playoff.

Head coach Hossam Hassan, who has been in charge of the Pharaohs since 2024, has since overseen two friendly fixtures against Saudi Arabia and reigning European champions Spain, with a thumping 4-0 away victory over the former at the end of March followed just four days later by a respectable goalless stalemate with the latter in Catalonia.

Egypt’s defensive solidity is what has stood out in recent matches, keeping a clean sheet in each of their last three matches, and Hassan will hope to see another positive performance against Russia before they lock horns with South American giants Brazil in their final friendly fixture on Saturday ahead of the World Cup.

Ranked 29th in the world by FIFA, the Pharaohs will kick-start their World Cup campaign on June 15 with a Group G contest against Belgium, before facing New Zealand and Iran later in the month.

As for Russia, they have not competed in a competitive international fixture since November 2021 after being banned by FIFA and UEFA from participating in any competition in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Russia still rank 36th in the FIFA World Rankings, above the likes of Wales, Sweden, Serbia, Scotland and Hungary, having won 15, drawn eight and lost just two of their 25 friendly matches played over a near five-year period.

After losing 2-0 against Chile in their final game of 2025, Valery Karpin’s side beat Nicaragua 3-1 and then played out a 0-0 draw with Mali during March’s international break.

Seven of Russia’s 25 friendlies have been against African opposition, including two against Egypt’s Under-23s in September 2023, with a 1-1 draw followed by a 2-1 defeat at the New Suez Stadium

Egypt form (all competitions):

Russia form (all competitions):

Team News

Ahead of the World Cup, Hassan has named a preliminary 27-man squad, with just one player to be dropped following Thursday’s friendly ahead his official squad announcement on Friday.

Nantes forward Mostafa Mohamed is a surprise omission from Egypt's squad, while uncapped 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim, who played for Barcelona B, has been included and could be handed his international debut against Russia.

It remains to be seen whether Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush and departing Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah will feature in some capacity, the latter of whom scored a penalty in the aforementioned group-stage defeat to Russia at the 2018 World Cup.

As for Russia, Karpin has named a 32-man squad for friendlies against Egypt, Burkina Faso and Trinidad and Tobago, facing the latter two nations in June, and it includes Monaco playmaker Aleksandr Golovin, who could captain the side on Thursday.

Manchester United academy midfielder Amir Ibragimov, 18, has been called up to the senior squad and is available to make his senior debut, while the likes of Igor Diveyev, Aleksei Miranchuk, Ivan Sergeyev are also in contention to play.

Egypt possible starting lineup:

El Shenawy; Hany, Fathy, Ibrahim, Fotouh; Lasheen, Ateya; Salah, Ashour, Trezeguet; Marmoush

Russia possible starting lineup:

Agkatsev; Vakhaniya, Silyanov, Melyokhin, Krugovoy; Oblyakov, Kislyak, Barinov; Glushenkov, Sergeyev, Golovin

We say: Egypt 2-0 Russia

It remains to be seen how strong both nations will line up, and the potential absence of Egypt's star players could level the playing field, turning this contest into a highly unpredictable matchup.

However, if Hassan fields a competitive side, then the hosts should have enough quality to dispatch the visitors who have rarely faced opposition of this calibre in recent years.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.