Argentina Egypt ended 3-2 in Atlanta on Tuesday. The defending champions trailed 2-0 with less than 15 minutes left. Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi, and Enzo Fernandez scored to send Argentina into the quarter-finals.
Argentina Egypt ended 3-2 in Atlanta on Tuesday. The defending champions trailed 2-0 with less than 15 minutes left. Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi, and Enzo Fernandez scored to send Argentina into the quarter-finals.
Egypt led for more than an hour and looked set to eliminate the holders. Yasser Ibrahim headed them in front in the 15th minute, and Messi then had his second penalty of the tournament saved by Mostafa Ahmed Shobeir. Mostafa Ziko doubled the lead in the 67th minute after an earlier effort was ruled out for a foul on Lisandro Martinez.
Argentina were trailing as late as the 78th minute. Messi crossed for Romero to head in on 79 minutes, then lashed home an equaliser four minutes later. Fernandez completed the turnaround in the second minute of stoppage time, heading in a Lautaro Martinez cross.
The final minutes tipped from tension into fury. When Fernández's winner went in, Hassan was booked for his protests. Goalkeeping coach Saafan Elsaghir was shown a straight red and had to be physically restrained from going after the referee.
Hassan did not soften in the press room. "We haven't seen respect or fair play," he said. "A penalty was ruled out, it was not even checked by the VAR and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed." Then came the accusation that will follow this match around: "Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running." The coach, who dedicated Egypt's win over Australia to the Palestinian people days earlier, said he would boycott the rest of the tournament in protest.
Messi was in tears at full-time. His assist for Romero made him the tournament's all-time assist leader, and his goal took him to eight at this tournament, one clear in the Golden Boot race.
Fernandez summed up the mood. "This is a phenomenal group that never gives up," he said. "Four years have passed since Qatar, and we've come to enjoy another World Cup, and we want to win it again. That's what we're aiming for."
The champions have now won 12 successive matches, a team record, and are unbeaten in 11 straight World Cup games.
Argentina move on to a quarter-final against Switzerland, who beat Colombia on penalties to reach the last eight for the first time since 1954. Egypt go home with a first-ever last-16 appearance, and a list of complaints they intend to be heard.
