Gimenez winner spells Egypt's doom
Ekaterinburg: José Giménez scored in the 90th minute to hand Uruguay a hard-fought 1-0 win against Egypt in a Group A match of the FIFA World Cup here on Friday.
Uruguay, who defeated Egypt in their only previous encounter in 2006, once again proved the better team when Giménez scored through a header off Carlos Andrés Sánchez free-kick from the right.
Uruguay dominated ball possession in the opening exchanges, and Egypt found no chance to steal the ball.
But soon, the Egyptians started to find their groove after coping with Uruguay's early onslaught but in the process they gifted the first attempt to score the goal to Uruguay as Edinson Cavani fired a low shot from outside the box which El-Shenawy managed to keep out comfortably.
After 10 minutes, Egypt, who were without star player Mohamed Salah, also counter-attacked as Trezeguet chested the ball down to create some room just inside the box but failed to connect his shot properly.
Trying to find the opening goal, both teams tried hard, counter-attacking each other. Amr Warda of Egypt won a free kick in the attacking half but could not find the net.
After the first 15 minutes, Uruguay found themselves on the back foot as their opponents attacks were getting stronger.
But in the 23rd minute, Luis Suarez got a good chance to open the scoring when a corner fell to the Barcelona star at the far post but the 31-year-old striker sliced his effort into the side net.
Suarez was not at his best as the Barcelona player could not hold several forward passes a few metres away from the box.
Egypt's and Manchester United player Guillermo Varela, on the other hand, seemed impressive down the left as he created many chances but could not finish on the final ball.