It is not hard to see why Egypt would be deeply upset after Tuesday’s 3-2 loss.
The African team held a two-goal advantage with just 11 minutes remaining, on the verge of reaching their first ever quarter-final.
Then everything unravelled as Argentina produced a stunning late rally to flip the contest and score the decisive goal in injury time.
Egyptian officials believe something more questionable was at work. They attribute their elimination to “major officiating errors” and “double standards” from the French referee François Letexier and his crew.
The Pharaohs saw a goal disallowed following a video assistant referee review.
They also argue Argentina’s winning strike ought to have been ruled out, with a penalty awarded to Egypt instead.
Mostafa Zico’s superb finish was erased after Marwan Attia was deemed to have stepped on Lisandro Martínez’s foot at the beginning of the sequence.
The call sparked debate, yet Egypt were already ahead 1-0 and did manage to double their lead nine minutes later. There is no way to prove the outcome would have shifted had Zico’s effort been allowed.
Egypt felt two possible penalty shouts were ignored before Enzo Fernández headed in the clincher.
Hamdi Fathy went down arguing he was held by Alexis Mac Allister, though replays did not paint a conclusive picture, while Mohamed Salah believed he was tripped by Julián Álvarez.
Some parallels existed between the Martínez incident and Salah’s situation, as both involved foot-to-foot contact, but the contact was insufficient to warrant a penalty award.
Egypt had a stronger case for having the goal overturned if Salah had been outside the box. The video assistant referee would then simply be assessing a foul—similar to the Martínez episode—rather than determining a penalty.
Controversial? Without a doubt. Still, it hardly adds up to proof of any campaign favouring Messi.
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