Lionel Messi has guided Argentina to an incredible comeback win against Egypt, coming back from 2-0 down to steal a 3-2 win at the death.
Messi missed a first half penalty as Egypt led 2-0 with little over 10 minutes remaining after goals to Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko in each half.
Egypt also had a goal ruled out for a foul in the lead up when VAR correctly intervened after spotting Marwan Attia stepped on Lisandro Martínez’s foot when winning the ball.
The foul was soft but arguably the correct call was made once VAR got involved, although few would have argued against it had it been ignored.
Argentina had never come back from two goals down at a World Cup, however, Messi led the fightback with the equalising goal as the reigning champions prevailed in a thriller.
Cristian Romero powered home a header with 11 minutes to go from a Messi cross, before Messi himself powered home the equaliser less than five minutes later.
Then, Enzo Fernández scored the winner in the first minute of stoppage time to complete the remarkable comeback.
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan was livid after the game, accusing the referee of bias after he felt Mo Salah was fouled in the build up to the Argentine winner.
Salah did go down in the penalty area but the contact was minimal and play was rightly allowed to continue.
Hassan was booked by the referee for crossing his arms in front of his face, the signal FIFA allows players or officials to use to report a racist incident.
“Negative aspects all around. It’s just about credibility, lack of credibility with how things unfolded,” an irate Hassan said in his press conference.
“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.”
Argentina will face Switzerland in the last eight after the Swiss beat Colombia in a penalty shootout after a goalless 120 minutes.
The World Observer Media produces a daily online newspaper, a daily Arabic online newspaper and a monthly printed Arabic/English magazine and a weekly printed Arabic/English newspaper.
The World Observer Media’s mission is to entertain and educate all generation from the Ethnic Communities in Australia, who are interested in local, national and foreign information. 
