Egypt's defender #05 Ramy Rabia, forward #10 Mohamed Salah and defender #03 Mohamed Hany react during the 2026 World Cup round of 16 football match between Argentina and Egypt at Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta on July 7, 2026. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan accused match officials of denying his team a place in the World Cup quarter-finals after Argentina came from two goals down to secure a dramatic 3-2 victory on Tuesday.
Speaking after the match, Hassan said, “I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice,” while insisting key refereeing decisions went against his side.
Egypt believed they should have had a second goal stand after a strike by Mostafa Zico was ruled out following a VAR review, before Zico later restored their two-goal advantage.
Argentina fought back through Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi, who scored after missing a first-half penalty, before Enzo Fernández netted the winner.
Hassan also argued that Egypt should have been awarded a penalty before Argentina’s winning goal, claiming VAR ignored an apparent foul on Hamdy Fathy by Alexis Mac Allister.
The Egyptian coach said, “We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play,” adding that, “A penalty was ruled out, was not even checked by VAR.”
He further suggested that Argentina benefited because officials wanted the defending champions and Messi to remain in the competition, saying, “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.”
Hassan also criticised the noon kick-off schedule, declaring, “Whoever schedules those matches has never played football,” and insisted he would no longer watch the rest of the tournament because of what he described as injustice.
