Egypt and Djibouti will play in the first round in Group A of the CAF World Cup qualifiers on Thursday night at Cairo International Stadium.

The home team is playing well heading into this game, and they want to gain momentum as they get closer to the African Cup of Nations, which Djibouti was not able to qualify for.

As the fifth-ranked football team in the continent, Egypt will begin their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign after a 1-1 friendly tie with Algeria back in October.

Egypt was eliminated from the previous World Cup as they were defeated by Senegal in a thrilling third-round match, with Senegal winning on a penalty kick.

With players like Omar Marmoush and Mohamed Salah ready to play, the hosts will surely be motivated to win the current campaign and have the players succeed.

In the meantime, Djibouti’s dreams of qualifying for the African Cup of Nations were dashed even sooner than planned as they lost to South Sudan 5-2 on aggregate in the preliminary round.

They have, however, seen a modest improvement in their play since then, and they enter this competition having defeated Pakistan and Mauritius in consecutive friendly matches in June of this year.

It is important to remember, too, that since June 2021, when they defeated Somalia 1-0 in regulation time, those triumphs were their only ones.

Egypt Starting XI

Djibouti Starting XI