Egypt built a 2-0 lead against reigning champions Argentina in the FIFA World Cup round of 16 on Tuesday only for the South Americans to respond with three goals in 13 minutes, the last a 92nd-minute winner from Enzo Fernandez that sent them into a quarter-final against Switzerland. Arab Times reported that the dramatic result was eclipsed by furious protests from the Egyptian camp over refereeing and video assistant referee reviews that coach Hossam Hassan said cost his team a historic upset. The 59-year-old, who assumed the national team role in February 2024, was booked for his protests on the touchline after the decisive goal.
Hassan, Egypt’s all-time leading scorer with 69 international goals, leveled direct criticism at French referee Francois Letexier in post-match comments. «Life is unfair. The world is unfair. Okay, but why isn’t there any fairness in sports? I’m not convinced by this outcome and by the way things unfolded in this match,» Hassan said after the game. «The referee is unfair. God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He’s wasting the effort of an entire nation. The cup is directed towards Argentina.»
The Egyptian grievances focused on an apparent foul by Julian Alvarez on Mohamed Salah inside the penalty area that produced no VAR intervention, according to the coach’s account to reporters. A shirt pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdi Fathy in another box incident also escaped review while an earlier goal from forward Zico was disallowed after a VAR check for a foul in the build-up. Hassan stated that the sequence of calls had deprived Egypt of respect and fair play.
«We haven’t seen respect or fair play,» Hassan continued in remarks carried by Arab Times. «A penalty for us was ruled out. It was not even checked by the VAR, and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.» He added that the visible shirt pull received no VAR check and suggested pressure from the Argentine side had shaped the outcome.
Zico, who scored Egypt’s goal in the match, echoed his manager’s view when speaking after the final whistle. «Both. We were hard done by today, and everyone saw that,» he said when asked whether his tears were for the defeat or the refereeing. «We’re winning 2-0. After the 2-0 result, everything went against us. I don’t even know why the second goal was disallowed.»
«The refereeing was obvious in front of everyone. We had a goal disallowed, and we had a penalty. The penalty was turned against us into a counter-attack goal,» Zico added. ESPN reported that the 2022 World Cup featured 27 VAR interventions, many of which generated similar controversy over consistency. FIFA statistics from the 2018 tournament showed the technology had raised refereeing decision accuracy from 95.6 percent without VAR to 99.35 percent when it was employed.
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