Hassan
Key Player: Mohammed Salah
Last World Cup Finish: Did Not Qualify
Now this one may be coming out of left field, but I can genuinely see an Egypt side led by the man in form Mo Salah having a big impact at this tournament. While it would be a big ask of their players to lift the trophy, in a game like football you never know what might happen.
Unless you have been living under the rock or avoiding football for the past 12 months, you all know just how good Salah has been this term for both Liverpool and the Egyptian National side. He scored the winning goal that got his team to the World Cup in the first place and he has been a big part of the Liverpool side that got to the Champions League final this season. Along with Salah, you have combative midfielders Elneny and Sobhi who play for Arsenal and Stoke respectively, Braga forward Kouka and longstanding captain Essam El-Hadary.
While their recent form as a national team has not been fantastic, they did only just lose to Euro 2016 winners Portugal in a recent friendly due to a top performance from the main man Ronaldo (while Salah scored again!). Egypt are one to keep an eye on and with a group containing Uruguay, Russia and Saudi Arabia, they have their work cut out for themselves, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see them get to the Quarter Finals and from there anything can happen.
If Mo Salah can get back to fitness before the tournament, we could all be in with a shock come the latter stages of the tournament!
