Atletico Madrid defender Jose Maria Gimenez broke Egyptian hearts as he produced a late bullet header to hand the Salah-less North Africans a 1-0 defeat on their 28-year return to the FIFA World Cup stage.

Star man Mohamed Salah was only good enough for the bench having just recovered from a shoulder injury sustained in the Champions League final last month but that didn’t matter much as Hector Cuper’s team settled in quicker than their more illustrious opponents.

The Seven-time African champions, however, struggled to create clear-cut openings despite being the better side with Barcelona superstar Luis Suarez missing the best chance of the half.

Uruguay improved after the interval but Egypt goalkeeper Ahmed El Shanawy was hugely impressive in denying the aforementioned Suarez and his strike partner Cavani but he was helpless to stop Gimenez’ bullet header from a corner kick on 89 minutes.

Uruguay go second behind Russia and level on three points with the hosts in Group A while Egypt are third with zero point ahead of their next game against the Europeans in five days time, while today’s opponents face the whipping boys of the group, Saudi Arabia on the same day.