Egypt coach, players lament referee’s handling of Argentina game
The coach of the Egyptian national team, Hossam Hassan and his players launched a scathing attack at the centre referee for his handling of the World Cup Round of 16 game against Lionel Messi-led Argentina.
During the game, the Egyptians who led by a 2-0 margin at a certain point were left aggrieved by several questionable calls including; a goal scored by Mostafa Zico which was disallowed after a VAR check and a penalty call on captain Mohammed Sallah.
A visibly furious Hassan who spoke to newsmen after the tense encounter claimed that the tournament was “directed towards Argentina” to keep Messi in the competition
The former international also told those who cared to listen that for as long as the ongoing World Cup continues, he would never watch a single match in protest of the officiating.
“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 told reporters. “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.
“In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champion received support at every level.”
“There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome,” he said. “We were objecting to the selection of the referee because of the French situation [Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final], but everybody has to suffer at some point, and we suffered.
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“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out [an alleged foul on Mo Salah]. It was not even checked by the VAR, and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
“I want to put it in beautiful words and say, ‘Hard luck,’ but we have been treated unfairly and it has been an injustice,” he said.
Egypt striker Mostafa Zico also lamented the handling of the game by the centre referee stating that the match slipped away from his team in the last moment after strange things happened in the match.
“Hard luck. The match was in our hands and slipped away at the last moment,” he said. “Strange things happened on the pitch.
“We were hard done by [the referee] today, and everyone saw that. I won’t talk about something like this. We were winning 2-0. After the 2-0 result, everything went against us and worked against us.
“I don’t even know why the second goal was disallowed, I don’t see any reason for it. But we must look for a solution so that a second goal doesn’t come. He wanted to disallow the third one too, but thank God, God didn’t grant him success.” Zico said after the game.
Argentina will now lock horns with Switzerland in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, while Egypt’s historic 2026 World Cup campaign comes to an end amid a bitter referee controversy.
