Egypt star Mostafa Ziko claimed the World Cup is “rigged” after defending champions Argentina rallied from behind to stun the Pharaohs 3-2 in stoppage time of their controversial Round-of-16 clash.
It was a showdown filled with controversy. Yasser Ibrahim headed home a 15th minute goal to give Egypt a shock lead, while Ziko had one goal controversially disallowed before scoring his second as the seven-time African champions led 2-0 as late as the 79th minute.
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But defender Cristian Romero scored Argentina’s first non-Messi goal this tournament before the Golden Boot leader himself restored parity four minutes later. Then, Enzo Fernandez broke Egypt’s hearts in the third minute of stoppage time.
Image source: BeIN Sports
There was also anger from Egypt that there was not a check on apparent foul by Alexis Mac Alliser in the immediate build-up to Fernandez’s last-gasp winner.
“Congratulations to Argentina on the World Cup; the tournament was rigged, they didn’t need anything else,” Ziko said during his on-field interview.
“The referee was unfair, unfair, unfair, unfair.”
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan was also scathing of the refereeing as he hit out at “external factors” following the country’s dramatic World Cup exit.
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🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING – MOSTAFA ZIKO:
🗣 “The referee is unfair, God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He’s wasting the effort of an entire nation.”
“The cup is being given to Argentina.”
pic.twitter.com/Um7MJkevpU
— Salah Updates #WorldCup (@SalahUpdates) July 7, 2026
“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. 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.
“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out [alleged foul on Mohamed Salah], 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 Mac Allister] and not even a VAR check. Life is unfair, normal life is unfair, so why is there no fairness in sports?
“I’m not convinced by this outcome and the way things unfolded in this match.
“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 was involved in a verbal confrontation with referee Francois Letexier post-match and he told reporters: “What I told the referee was ‘this is unfair’. I said maybe he is carrying a scar or has something to hide.
“If somebody is trying to hide something, they often fail to hide it. Anyway, when I am finished, I am not going to watch another game of this tournament.”