New Zealand vs Egypt Preview! 🏆 Elijah Just & Chris Wood's Plan for the Pharaohs

Ollie, how are we feeling a little time on from securing those, well, those two goals in a competition point against Iran, our chances against Egypt and Mo Salah?

Full of confidence, I think, and the playing group should feel the same way.

The performance against Iran in the opening game was outstanding.

There were so many positives to take from that.

The talk coming into the tournament was how were we going to find goals, and on top of that, how were we going to find goals if it wasn't Chris Wood? Well, we've just found the answer to that.

Chris Wood heavily involved in those two goals, of course, some fantastic link-up play and two assists, but ultimately it was Eli Just who sold the show, and the boys should be feeling very good about that.

Ife, when you look at Egypt, there are two names.

There's one big one and a, well, not so big, but still pretty large.

Mo Salah, Omar Mahmoud.

How does New Zealand stop the threat of those Egyptians?

Yeah, I think it's a bit of a different one this time, because I think if you go back to the Iran game, Yes, you've got Mediterimi, who's a very good player, but he's not a Mo Salah.

He's on the way down, maybe Mo Salah is, but Mo is still arguably one of the best that's ever played in the Premier League.

So you're talking another level.

Mahmoud, definitely not there yet, but a very good supporting member.

So I think it's a case of can you stop the ball into Mo Salah? I think if you're trying to stop Mo Salah once he's got the ball, you're in trouble.

I think for New Zealand, they've got to find a way to stop him getting enough ball.

That's the way I would go, for sure.

Well, the great difficulty of that is, and what we've seen from Mo Salah for almost a decade at Liverpool, you put him out on the right-hand side, he gets the ball, you know he's going to cut in and either find a pass or finish top bins on his left side, right? But if...

The first game against Belgium is anything to go by.

He's going to drop deep.

He's going to have a roaming role.

He popped up on the other side of the field as well.

So when we look at who needs to step up for the All Whites in order to contain the Mo Salah threat, it's not just a big day for Libby Kakache, is it? No, they're covering midfielders too.

The ball side midfielders are going to have a lot of work to do.

They play a huge role in supporting the fullback in scenarios like that where they find themselves isolated against... wingers who want to cut inside, it's not just about the fullback.