Egypt believes it has a strong roster around Salah as it prepares to face Belgium in World Cup

SEATTLE (AP) — Egypt's World Cup opener against Belgium on Monday will pit former Liverpool standout Mohamed Salah in an underdog role against longtime Manchester City stalwart Kevin De Bruyne and his talented teammates.

Egypt has never won a World Cup match and has led only once in seven games. Still, the Pharaohs insist they are to be taken seriously in Group G.

Aside from Salah, who has yet to decide where he will play next after a nine seasons with Liverpool, Egypt’s attack features Omar Marmoush of Manchester City. The tandem of Salah and Marmoush has caught the eye of Belgium manager Rudi Garcia, who coached the former when he played for Roma.

“Obviously, they’ve got other qualities, they’ve got other players,” Garcia said Sunday in French. “This is a team that is always raring to go. They’re a solid team that needs to be respected.”

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan was quietly confident ahead of the match. Hassan, Egypt's career scoring leader with 69 international goals, netted one against Algeria in 1990 to propel Egypt to one of its four World Cup appearances.

Hassan said Egypt's goal is to advance past the group stage in the expanded field.

“We have some negative perception here because we have not participated, except for four times in the World Cup,” Hassan said in Arabic. “But I think now we have a generation that deserves to be here.”

Even so, the odds will be against Hassan’s squad for reasons beyond having to play at noon local time amid a heat wave in Seattle. The Belgian side features holdovers from the “Golden Generation” like De Bruyne and goalkeeper Thibault Courtois, as well as rising stars such as winger Jérémy Doku.

“As I said at the outset, the Belgian squad is an amazing one, a star-studded one,” Hassan said. “I respect the Belgian national team. It goes without saying that the entire world is very well aware of what they are capable of.”

Yet Egypt believes it can compete, having beaten Belgium three times in four exhibition matches.

“We would like to have history repeat itself,” Hassan said.

Belgium faces pressure to avoid repeating its performance in 2022 in Qatar, when it did not advance beyond the group stage. The Belgians finished third in 2018 in Russia.

Belgium will need to shut down Salah, or at the very least slow down the four-time Premier League Golden Boot winner. Salah, who slumped by his standards in his final season with Liverpool, had nine goals and three assists in six World Cup qualifying matches.

“It goes without saying that Mohamed Salah is important,” Hassan said. “(But), everyone is important.”

Hassan believes Egypt can pull off an upset because of the players around Salah.

“We have many talents besides Salah, besides Marmoush,” Hassan said. “We have very good players, and, God willing, people will watch them and they will be a contributing factor to their country.”

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Belgium's head coach Rudi Garcia waits for the start of the international friendly soccer match between Belgium and Tunisia in Brussels, Belgium, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan talks with his players during a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Egypt's Mohamed Salah, center, participates with his teammates in a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Egypt's Mohamed Salah (10) runs with the ball during an international friendly soccer match against Brazil in Cleveland, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/David Richard)

Egypt's Mohamed Salah participates with his teammates in a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

NEW YORK (AP) — High oil and gasoline prices and energy supply problems won't be solved overnight, despite an agreement to end the Iran war and open the Strait of Hormuz announced Sunday.

It will likely take months before energy companies can resume operations to the point of meeting the world’s demand, according to energy experts. The slow pace of the process of shipping and refining crude oil, and doubts about the security of traveling through the strait mean the effect won't be seen immediately, they said.

Ships loaded with crude oil have been stranded in the Persian Gulf for more than three months, unable to safely travel through the waterway, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gasoline supplies typically traveled before the war began.

“It’s going to take time for people to feel comfortable and for insurance to be in place ... particularly to get people on the ground to restart some of these assets,” said Daniel Evans, global head of fuels and refining research at S&P Global Energy.

Still, oil prices slipped early Monday after the deal was announced.

Brent crude, the international standard, was down $3.45 at $83.89 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil lost $4.03 to $80.85 per barrel.

Those prices are still well above the roughly $70 per barrel where oil was trading before the war started.

As the higher prices unwind, ships that have been stranded will have to exit the strait, and then new tankers will have to come in to be loaded, Evans said.

“To bring a ship in, you need to be confident that you’ve got a big enough window of safety to bring it in, load it and move it out," he added.

Oil tankers also move slowly, he explained. It takes months to travel from the strait to distant countries, deliver the crude oil to a refinery for processing and then arrive at its final destination.

In addition, some producers in the Middle East paused extracting oil from the ground, known as a shut-in, when they ran out of storage space. Restarting those operations can be a slow process.

Countries such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, where there are alternate pipelines or routes besides the Strait of Hormuz to deliver oil, may be among the quickest to resume production, said Alan Gelder, senior vice president of refining, chemicals and oil markets at Wood Mackenzie, an analytics firm.

“But places like Iraq could be much more challenged because they’ve had a much bigger shut-in, their fields are more difficult ... it may well take about a year before they get back," he said.

Investment in the energy system, which can take years to see the results, ground to a halt after the strait's closure, Gelder said. So it will take time for this capital to restart.

Countries that shut in oil production won't want to restart until they know there is a stable, durable strait, and that a ceasefire will last more than 30 or 60 days, said Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

“We don’t know what open means or what the speed of evacuation of trapped material is going to be,” he said.

Customer checks gas price before she fills up her vehicle's tank at a gas station in Lincolnshire, Ill., Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The American Flag flies next to a One9 Fuel Stop sign displaying gas prices for diesel and unleaded gas in Wilmington, Ohio, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)