Topping the foreign press’ coverage of Egypt this morning is the Pharaohs’ last-minute loss to Saudi Arabia, which scored a “last-gasp” 2-1 win over Egypt and gave KSA its first World Cup win since 1994. Egypt’s last-place finish in its group is likely to “heap pressure” on the national team’s coach Hector Cuper, Reuters reports.

Cuper defended his team, saying the Pharaohs were “unlucky” at the end. “Our strategy has not been a failure. We created at least five good chances on the counter attack and we had a very good first half in which we took the lead,” Cuper said, praising the record-breaking performance of 45-year-old goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary, who became the oldest competitor in World Cup history. The team’s only goal at yesterday’s match was scored by the usual, Mohamed Salah, who “put aside his highly publicized troubles,” according to the Associated Press, and scored his second World Cup goal. Salah later apologized to his fans for an “inexperienced” exit from the World Cup. “I just want to say that Egypt reached the World Cup after 28 years, some players here do not have the required experience,” the Independent quotes him as saying.

The Egyptian Football Association is still “emphatically” denying rumors that Salah wants to leave the national team: Reports claiming that national star Mohamed Salah is on the verge of quitting international football continue to dominate headlines in the foreign press. These “rumors” are not true and Salah has “made no complaints” to officials, the national team’s head of PR Osama Ismail tells RT. CNN had reported on Sunday that Salah was giving serious thought to leaving the national team after he “unwittingly became a publicity pawn” for Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and was upset for getting “special attention” during the team’s stay in Grozny, according to Reuters. “Salah is believed to be upset because he believes he has not been offered suitable protection by the Egyptian Football Association” from the backlash he faced over being photographed with Kadyrov, the New York Times reports.

To cap it all off, the EFA could face “harsh fines” from FIFA after Qatari sports network beIN reportedly complained to the global football governing body about the EFA refusing its request to interview the Egyptian national team during the World Cup. FIFA should be sending word to the EFA within the next few days, according to an unnamed EFA official.

The World Cup has done nothing to raise national morale: The political mess surrounding Salah, compounded by the national team’s disappointing and short-lived run in the World Cup, has only served to worsen the population’s simmering discontent with the country’s conditions, Khaled Diab writes in an opinion piece for Washington Post.

Other headlines this morning:

• Airbnb should consider investing in Egypt, as the service has grown exponentially in the country in just a few short years, Brennan Cusack writes on Forbes’ contributor network.
• Female preachers? Egyptian clerics are allowing women to act as preachers in mosques as part of the country’s fight against religious extremism, according to the Baptist Standard.
• Coptic hunger strike in Hong Kong: A Coptic Christian couple fleeing what they claim is persecution in Egypt went on hunger strike to protest alleged mistreatment at the hands of immigration officials in Hong Kong, South China Morning Post reports.
• Archaeologists uncovered six cases of cancer while studying the bodies of Ancient Egyptians buried 3,000 years ago at the Dakhleh Oasis, according to LiveScience.