Egypt vs USA Preview

Egypt can book their place in the knock-out stages of the Confederations Cup when they take on the disappointing United States.

After taking Brazil all the way to the wire in their opener, Egypt bounced back from the disappointment of losing to a controversial last-minute penalty to stun Italy 1-0 on Thursday.

That result means they can secure second place by bettering Italy's result against Group B leaders Brazil.

On paper, this should be the easiest of Egypt's three games, particularly given how the United States have been playing in losing both their opening games and having players sent off each time.

But Egypt's victory on Thursday has left the door open for Bob Bradley's team to sneak out of the group by beating Egypt and hoping Brazil can do them a favour against Italy.

Under those circumstances, Egypt know they cannot underestimate the Stars and Stripes.

"The game against the United States is even more important than the ones against Italy and Brazil, if I we're being honest," said midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika on FIFA.com.

"If we don't win against the Americans, our victory over Italy will be rendered largely meaningless. This is a decisive game and we must be ready for a fight."

The United States have conceded three goals in each of their first two games, and they would need a lopsided victory to fix the damage already done to their position in the table.

They could help themselves by improving their discipline, having played 90 of the 180 minutes of their first two games down to 10 men. Sacha Kljestan will miss out on this match through suspension following his red card against Italy.

"It's disappointing to lose our first two games, but we're still in it until we're out of it," said defender Jonathan Spector.

"Whatever the case, we'll have to show up and give our best performance in the final group game. I think we've learned a lot from our first two matches and hopefully we can get something out of the third with Egypt."