Egypt’s manager, Hossam Hassan, has vowed not to watch another minute of the World Cup after feeling his side “suffered an injustice” against Argentina as Lionel Messi inspired a miraculous comeback from two goals down.
Egypt took an early lead through Yasser Ibrahim and thought they had doubled their advantage early in the second half, only for Mostafa Ziko’s goal to be disallowed for a foul by Marwan Attia in the buildup. Ziko made it 2-0 soon after before Cristian Romero pulled one back for Argentina and Messi equalised, in the process scoring his eighth goal of the tournament and 21st in the World Cup.
Egypt were also incensed with the failure of the French referee, François Letexier, to award a foul seconds before Enzo Fernández scored the winning goal, with Hassan revealing that they had objected to the selection of Letexier before the game.
But the former striker reserved most of his ire for Fifa, which he accused of wanting to keep the reigning champions in the competition at all costs. “It’s all about money. They want Messi to stay in the tournament,” Hassan said. “In football, many things happen off the pitch because of interests. What happened was unfair. Egypt deserved to qualify. We were the better team.”
Hassan, who remains Egypt’s leading scorer, one goal ahead of Mohamed Salah, added: “Why isn’t there any fairness in sport? I do not want to try to put it nicely here with beautiful wording. We have been treated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice. It is my own way of speaking up and standing up. I am not going to watch another match in this tournament.”
Ziko also accused the officials of favouring their opponents. “After we made it 2-0, everything went against us,” he said. “I don’t know why this second goal was disallowed.”
The Argentina manager, Lionel Scaloni, had to cut short his post-match interview after bursting into tears. He paid tribute to Messi after the 39-year-old recovered from seeing his first-half penalty saved by the outstanding Mostafa Shobeir. “Messi missed a penalty but he asks for the ball again and he drives, again and again,” he said. “I get goosebumps, to be honest. This is who we are, as Argentinians. We play our hearts out.”
Julián Alvarez described Messi as “the best player in the world”, saying: “I really don’t have the words to describe him. He always helps us when we need him most. He’s a monster.”
