Egypt's World Cup Heartbreak: Late Collapse Against Argentina Sparks Fury Over Refereeing

With 12 minutes of normal time remaining Egypt stood on the cusp of their greatest ever World Cup result.

The Pharaohs led Argentina, the reigning world champions, 2-0 in Atlanta Stadium.

A quarter-final spot - their first - beckoned for the football-mad African country.

Then it went wrong. Horribly wrong.

When Cristian Romero reduced the deficit in the 79th minute, it was a case of Egypt digging in. But they looked panic-stricken when captain Lionel Messi - who else? - made it 2-2 four minutes later.

Enzo Fernandez then completed a remarkable turnaround with a header in the second minute of stoppage-time.

Egypt were down and out - and downright furious after the video assistant referee (VAR) ruled out a second goal by Mostafa Zico for a foul after midfielder Marwan Attia was penalised for slightly stepping on Lisandro Martinez at the start of the move, when they were leading 1-0.

They were also adamant Mohamed Salah was fouled in Argentina's penalty area, seconds before the reigning champions broke for the winner.

When French referee Francois Letexier signalled full-time, many of Egypt's players slumped to the floor in disbelief at what had just happened.

In an explosive interview after the game, Egypt boss Hossam Hassan said his side had been "treated unfairly" and "suffered injustice." BBC Sport has approached Fifa for comment.

"There have been a lot of things to be questioned on and off the pitch," he added.

"Negative aspects all around. It's just about credibility, lack of credibility with how things unfolded.

"Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.

"The world champion received support at every level. There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome."

This match had everything - a penalty save, a disallowed goal, a red card as well as a thrilling comeback.

BBC Sport unpicks a game that will go down in World Cup history for featuring a team who were two goals down so late on, but who went on to win without needing extra time.

"We need to appear in a better way at the World Cup," Egypt head coach Hassan had said on the eve of the tournament as he addressed his nation's poor World Cup record.

Egypt arrived in North America as World Cup underachievers, having come up short in their previous three appearances on the global stage, failing to win any of their seven matches.

Having secured a first win by overcoming New Zealand in a group game in Vancouver on 22 June, the Pharaohs took the lead against the three-time world champions Argentina when Yasser Ibrahim headed his side into a 15th-minute lead.

In an incident-packed game, Egypt goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir produced a magnificent save to keep out Messi's penalty before the Pharaohs thought they had scored another only for it to be disallowed.

Fernandez's late, late winner brought further anger as Egypt screamed for a penalty after a foul on Salah, and a member of Egypt's backroom team on the bench was shown a red card.

In addition, Egypt's head coach was booked for protesting after Argentina's winner when he crossed his arms in front of him, which is the Fifa-backed symbol for players and coaches to alert the referee of a racist incident.

The Pharaohs boss did not refer to his gesture after the match, but did reveal that Egypt had objected to Letexier being the referee, referring to his "background."

"We haven't seen respect or fair play," he said.

"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.

"We have all seen the shirt pulled back [by Alexis Mac Allister] and not even a VAR check. Life is unfair, normal life is unfair, so why is there no fairness in sports?

Egypt forward Zico, added: "The referee was really unfair. The injustice was clear. There's been an unfairness right from the start of the match."

Only last week Pierluigi Collina, Fifa's head of referees, underlined a key criteria given to his officials.

Referees have been told to allow normal football contact to increase the tempo of matches.

This World Cup has seen 22.6 fouls per game, compared with 25 in 2022 and 27 in 2018.

How does that feed into Egypt's disallowed goal?

Attia had a very light tug on the shirt of Martinez and slightly stepped on his toe.

But the VAR stepped in to say Zico's superb goal should be ruled out for a foul.

Of course there is an argument that this can be a foul, but it would be inconsistent with how the tournament has been refereed.

If you are letting these challenges go on the field, then you have to do the same with VAR.

Remember Aleksandar Pavlovic's raised boot to the head of Ecuador's Pedro Vite's face? No VAR intervention for Leroy Sane's goal.

Did the foul happen too far back in the move? The VAR will look at how the attacking phase begins, specifically how possession was won.

As the challenge directly led to the goal it would be reviewable, even though it was 17 seconds back.

What is more unfortunate for the officiating team is the potential foul on Salah in the build-up to Fernandez's dramatic winner.

In the Argentina penalty area, Salah went down claiming he had been tripped by Julian Alvarez. Surely this should be reviewed by VAR too?

It was similar to Attia's challenge - except for one crucial difference.

Salah was in the penalty box, so the VAR is assessing a potential penalty - which has a higher threshold to a foul.

Had Salah been outside the area, for consistency the VAR would have to get involved. As there's not enough for a spot-kick, Argentina's winner stands.

I'd just got off the phone with my nine-year-old nephew.

"Misha, it's a disaster. We've been robbed!" he said in angry tears.

My guess is there are similar conversations happening in homes and family WhatsApp groups wherever Egyptians like my family are watching tonight.

Heartbreak doesn't even begin to cover it.

This match took fans on an emotional rollercoaster - from hope, to belief, to outright elation... before anger and finally anguish.

"As an American of Egyptian descent, I felt every minute of this," Sami Elmansoury, 41, told me.

"Watching Egypt rise from their first ever World Cup win to going toe-to-toe with Argentina is something I'll never forget. Nothing can dim what these players showed the world today. Their performance throughout this tournament will live on."

And I think that's what many Egyptians are feeling tonight.

Pride... alongside heartbreak. They didn't play like underdogs, they played like equals.

This team has done something no Egyptian side has managed before. They have lifted the spirits of a nation and a region.

Their motto throughout this tournament has been 'Mekameleen', which means 'we'll keep going'.

And they did. Tonight, the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and cities across Egypt will be quieter than fans had hoped.

This World Cup may have ended in heartbreak, but it has also left Egyptians believing that this team belongs among football's biggest nations.