“Maybe they wanted to keep the world champions in the tournament,” Hassan said after his team was eliminated.
Published July 7, 2026
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan claimed his team had been “cheated” into missing out on a place in the World Cup quarter-finals after Argentina made a spectacular late comeback from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in the last-16 match in Atlanta.
The Pharaohs started on the back foot, but they took the lead against the world champions within 15 minutes and scored two more points in the second half, giving Argentina the win on Tuesday.
“I don’t want to talk about bad luck, to put it nicely. Today we were cheated and treated unfairly,” an excited Hassan said at the post-match press conference.
Egypt were leading 1-0 when Mostafa Zico’s goal was canceled out quite early in the match after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) intervened and spotted a foul on Lisandro Martinez.
Zico then doubled the lead and put Egypt on the brink of reaching the last eight for the first time.
However, the defending champions fought back as Cristian Romero reduced the penalty and Lionel Messi, who saved a first-half penalty, scored his eighth goal of the tournament to equalize.
But the controversy didn’t end there, with Egypt believing Alexis Mac Allister should have been given a penalty instead for pulling over Hamdi Fathy in the lead-up to Argentina’s winning goal, scored by Enzo Fernandes.
“We saw no respect and no fair play. There was no respect and no fair play,” Hassan said.
“The penalty was ruled out and there was no VAR check. The second goal was surprisingly disallowed. Everyone saw the footage of[the shirt]being pulled back and there was no VAR check.”
Hassan said he no longer watches tournament matches because he felt it was unfair.
“I’m not going to continue watching this World Cup match,” he added.
“This is my way of speaking.”
“They wanted Messi to stay.”
Yasser Ibrahim’s header gave Egypt the lead, but Argentina were awarded a penalty after Nicolas Tagliafico’s trip.
The question of Messi’s World Cup penalty continued, but his shot was saved by Mostafa Shobeir.
The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has missed four of eight spot-kicks outside of shootouts at the World Cup, including two in this tournament.
Hassan speculated that there may have been pressure on officials to keep one of the tournament’s leading players.
“Maybe they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition, maybe they wanted Messi to stay in the competition,” he told BeIN Sports.
“In soccer, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at all levels.”
Egypt displayed a surprising attack from the start of the match, a departure from Hassan’s usual tactics of playing solid defense and waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.
This gave them an early lead, but heroics from goalkeeper Mostafa Chobeir kept them in the lead by half-time.
“We are very happy with their efforts. Most of our players are from the Egyptian domestic league, but many of the players from other national teams are based in Europe and live in their professional environment,” Hassan added.
“Still, we had mainly local players, apart from Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmouche, so we could compete with anyone.”
Hassan also complained about the match schedule, with a midday kick-off (16:00 GMT), just four days after both teams won their Round of 32 matches.
“The people who schedule those games have never played soccer. They would never schedule a game at 12 p.m. They just go for a walk or have brunch at noon, they don’t go play soccer.
“What time should the players eat? 7:30 a.m.?”
“There were a lot of questions on and off the pitch.”
