Egypt coach says side was cheated in World Cup loss to Argentina

ATLANTA: Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said his team had been treated unfairly after their 3-2 defeat to Argentina on Tuesday, a result that sent the defending champions into the World Cup quarter-finals after they came from 2-0 down.

Egypt looked set for a place in the last eight for the first time after Yasser Ibrahim opened the scoring and Mostafa Zico later doubled the lead. Zico had also seen an earlier goal disallowed while Egypt were 1-0 ahead, after VAR intervened and identified a foul on Lisandro Martinez earlier in the move. Argentina recovered late through Cristian Romero and Lionel Messi before Enzo Fernandez scored the winner.

Speaking at a press conference after the match, Hassan said the officiating decisions had gone against his side. He said Egypt believed they should have had a penalty in the move that led to Argentina's winning goal because of what they saw as a pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdy Fathy.

Hassan said, "I do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today, we have suffered injustice."

He also said, "We haven’t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play."

Referring to the decisions during the game, Hassan added, "A penalty was ruled out, was not even checked by VAR. A second goal was remarkably disallowed. There has not even been a VAR check when we have all seen the image of the (shirt) being pulled back."

Messi had earlier missed from the penalty spot after Argentina were awarded a spot-kick for a trip on Nicolas Tagliafico, with goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir making the save. The Argentina captain has now failed to convert four of his eight non-shootout World Cup penalties, including two misses in this tournament. He still went on to score the equaliser, his eighth goal of the competition.

Hassan said the sense of injustice was so strong that he no longer wanted to follow the tournament. He said: "I am not going to continue following the matches of this World Cup, watching the matches of this World Cup" and added: "This is my own way of speaking up."

In comments to BeIn Sports, Hassan suggested outside pressures may have influenced the outcome in favour of Argentina and Messi. He said, "Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running."

He added, "In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at every level."

Hassan also criticised the timing of the fixture, which kicked off at noon, four days after both teams had won their round-of-32 matches. He said the scheduling showed a lack of understanding of players' needs.

He said, "Whoever schedules those matches has never played football. You never schedule a game for 12pm. At noon you go for a walk or to eat brunch, you do not go to play football."

He continued, "When are the players supposed to eat? At 7.30am?"

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