Egypt coach Hossam Hassan claimed the World Cup is being “directed towards Argentina” as he fumed at several key refereeing decisions after the defending champions knocked out his side with a remarkable last-16 comeback.
Hassan’s side looked on course for a stunning upset after goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko had Egypt 2-0 in front with 11 minutes of normal time to play.
But Argentina roared back to keep their hopes of back-to-back titles alive, Cristian Romero pulling one back before Lionel Messi fired in his eighth goal of the tournament in off the crossbar to equalise.
Argentina completed the turnaround in the third minute of stoppage time as Enzo Fernandez headed in at the far post from Lautaro Martinez’s deep cross.
That goal was met with furious protests from Egypt, who claimed Mohamed Salah had been fouled in the build-up to Fernandez’s decisive effort and that they should instead have been awarded a penalty at the other end. Ziko had earlier seen a wonderful team goal chalked off by VAR for an Egypt foul deep inside their own half.
Those decisions left Hassan, who saw a member of his backroom team shown a red card amid the fallout from Fernandez’s goal, to point an accusing finger at FIFA.
“We haven’t seen respect or fair play,” he told a press conference. |A penalty was ruled out and a second [incident] that should have been checked for a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR. A second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
“There seems to have been pressure on the Argentinian side on the referee that has brought about this outcome.
“Life is unfair. The world is unfair. OK, 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.
“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.”
Ziko seemingly concurred with his coach’s assessment.
He told Canadian broadcaster TSN: “It was not fair from the referee. It was really not fair, that was very clear. He wasted all of our efforts with his decisons. We were leading 2-0 and we cannot do anything, it’s all up to God.
“We are so sorry [to the people of Egypt]. I am so sorry. We wanted to make you all happy. It was not in the cards. It was the referee. Congratulations to Argentina on the second Cup.”
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