Iran and Egypt, two national teams each possessing a history of over a century in international football, have faced each other in an official match only once throughout all these years. The two countries, each considered traditional powerhouses in Asian and African football, have appeared numerous times in their respective continental championships and have qualified for the World Cup a combined total of eight times; yet, the paths of their national teams have rarely crossed. Now, for the very first time, these two squads will lock horns in the World Cup, a fixture that could decide the qualification fate of both teams.
The scarcity of footballing encounters between Iran and Egypt cannot be explained solely by geography. The political relations between the two countries were restricted for decades, starting from 1979, and during the same period, Iranian and Egyptian football found fewer opportunities to square off than was expected of two historic powerhouses of Asia and Africa. The outcome of these four decades has been a single official match between the senior national teams of the two nations: a fixture in Tehran's "LG Cup" on June 7, 2000, which concluded in a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation time, with Egypt eventually winning the tournament on penalties.
