Mohamed Salah and the Egypt national team, affectionately known as the Pharaohs, were en route to pulling off the definitive upset of the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup when they met Argentina in the Round of 16 on Tuesday, July 7.
Egypt’s Yasser Ibrahim opened the scoring in the 15th minute, marking the first time Argentina had to play from behind at this World Cup. In the 57th minute, Salah slotted a beautiful through ball to Mostafa Zico, who finished it to make it a 2-0 advantage.
The goal was disallowed VAR review due to “a foul in the offensive build up,” per FOX Sports, but Zico came right back and scored (for real this time) in the 67th minute.
Two goals weren’t enough to hold down Argentina, the defending champions, as Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi, and Enzo Fernandez found the back of the net in the final 20 minutes to pull off the definitive comeback of the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup.
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan and Zico were outraged after the loss.
“We looked better than the reigning champions — better in everything — but the result was influenced by internal factors on the pitch and external factors off it,” Hassan said, per ESPN’s Mark Ogden. “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.”
“I want to put it in beautiful words and say, ‘Hard luck,’ but we have been treated unfairly and it has been an injustice,” Hassan added, noting that he told referee François Letexier that it was “unfair.”
Zico echoed his coach’s sentiments in his post-match interview.
“The referee was really not fair,” Zico said, per BBC Sport. “Not fair. The referee was not fair. The injustice was clear. We did a good job in the early stages of the match. There’s been an unfairness right from the start of the match. A 2-0 lead isn’t enough to beat Argentina. It’s clear that this tournament has been fixed.”
It doesn’t feel like it now, and it won’t for a while, but the Pharaohs has so much to be proud of from the past month. Egypt had never won a World Cup match before this summer and beat New Zealand in the group stage before earning their first knockout stage win over Australia in the Round of 32.
Argentina, meanwhile, will meet Switzerland in the quarterfinal in Kansas City on Saturday, July 11. Messi and company are vying to become the first repeat men’s World Cup champions since Brazil in 1958 and 1962.