World Cup Daily: Spain bounce back as Egypt make World Cup history

Spain forward Lamine Yamal, who became one of the youngest scorers in World Cup history, and Egypt captain Mohamed Salah emerged as the standout performers of the day.

In Group H, Spain put their opening-match frustration behind them with a commanding 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia. Teenager Lamine Yamal opened the scoring in the 10th minute to become the eighth-youngest goalscorer in FIFA World Cup history at 18 years and 343 days old. Mikel Oyarzabal then struck twice in the space of three minutes before an own goal from Hassan Altambakti completed the rout.

Later in the same group, Cape Verde continued their impressive debut tournament by holding Uruguay to a 2-2 draw. Kevin Pina gave the Africans the lead before Maxi Araújo and Agustín Canobbio turned the match in Uruguay's favor. However, Hélinho Varela capitalized on a defensive mistake to earn Cape Verde another valuable point.

Group G began with a tense 0-0 draw between Belgium and Iran. The Iranians had a Mehdi Taremi goal ruled out for offside, while Belgium finished the match with ten men after Nathan Ngoy was sent off in the second half.

Egypt then secured a historic 3-1 victory over New Zealand, the country's first-ever FIFA World Cup win. After trailing at halftime, the Pharaohs rallied through Mostafa Zico before Mohamed Salah scored and later assisted Trezeguet to seal the memorable comeback.

After two rounds of matches, Spain lead Group H with four points alongside Cape Verde, while Egypt moved to the top of Group G with four points. Belgium and Iran remain level on two points, while New Zealand sit bottom with one.

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the Netherlands thrashed Sweden 5-1 to boost their knockout-stage hopes, while Japan secured a place in the round of 32 with a 4-0 victory over Tunisia.