Egypt vs Djibouti Prediction: Mohammed Salah’s Egypt will step up

On the first day of the CAF World Cup qualifications for Group A, Egypt will face Djibouti at the Cairo International Stadium on Thursday evening. The hosts are in excellent shape as they head into this encounter and will be seeking to build up some momentum as they get closer to the 2018 African Cup of Nations, which Djibouti will not be participating in because they did not qualify. 

Egypt's national football team now holds the fifth-highest ranking on the African continent and will begin qualifying for the 2026 World Cup on the heels of a 1-1 tie with Algeria in a friendly match that took place back in October. After Mohamed Hany was issued the red card inside the first half hour of that encounter, the Pharaohs played the majority of the match with 10 men, yet they were barely seconds away from securing the victory before Islam Slimani scored just before the final whistle to cancel out Hamdi Fathi's goal that had given him the lead. The Egyptians kept their remarkable record of suffering just one defeat in their previous 11 matches across all competitions. That defeat occurred against Tunisia in the middle of August, and it came after the Egyptians had already earned an astounding nine victories over that span of time. Egypt was unable to participate in the most recent World Cup since they were eliminated by Senegal in a nail-biting match in the third round. The match ended 1-1 on aggregate, and then Senegal prevailed in a penalty shootout to go to the next round. There is no doubt that the home team will be desperate to redeem themselves in this season's competition, and they have the players at their disposal to do it, with players like Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush poised and ready to perform.

Djibouti's chances of winning the African Cup of Nations were dashed far earlier than they would have wanted by South Sudan's victory in the preliminary round. The final score was 5-2 on aggregate, and Djibouti was defeated by South Sudan. Since then, however, they have seen a little improvement in their results, and they entered this competition on the heels of back-to-back victories in friendly competition against Pakistan and Mauritius in June of this year. However, it is important to point out that those victories were the only ones they had achieved in regulation time since June 2021, when they defeated Somalia in a friendly match by a score of 1-0. In addition, their upcoming encounter against the Egyptians will take place almost exactly five months after their game against Pakistan, and the fact that they will not have the time to prepare for the game against the African powerhouses does not bode well for their prospects of winning.

The Egyptian national team possesses true quality, since many of its players are now competing in some of the most prestigious leagues in the world. We believe that they will be far stronger than their rival, and as a result, they should emerge victorious in this contest with ease.