{"id":787221,"date":"2026-07-08T01:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787221\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T01:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:02:11","slug":"egypt-were-cheated-in-world-cup-loss-to-argentina-coach-hassan-says-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787221\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt were \u2018cheated\u2019 in World Cup loss to Argentina, coach Hassan says | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition,\u2019 Hassan said after his team was knocked out.<\/p>\n

Published On 7 Jul 20267 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan claims his side was \u201ccheated\u201d out of a place in the World Cup quarterfinals after Argentina staged a stunning late comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in a gripping last-16 match in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The Pharaohs started as underdogs but took the lead against the world champions within 15 minutes, which was doubled in the second half before Argentina walked away with the win on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want to put it nicely and talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today; we have suffered injustice,\u201d Hassan said in an explosive post-match news conference.<\/p>\n

Egypt had a Mostafa Zico goal ruled out when they were leading 1-0 as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) intervened to spot a foul on Lisandro Martinez much earlier in the move.<\/p>\n

Zico did then put Egypt on the brink of a place in the last eight for the first time by doubling their lead.<\/p>\n

However, the defending champions hit back as Cristian Romero reduced the arrears before Lionel Messi, who had a first-half penalty saved, smashed in the equaliser with his eighth goal of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The controversy did not end there, though, as in the buildup to Argentina\u2019s winner scored by Enzo Fernandez, Egypt believe they should have instead been awarded a penalty for a pull by Alexis Mac Allister on Hamdy Fathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen respect or fair play. There has not been respect or fair play,\u201d Hassan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassan said he would not watch any more matches of the tournament, such was the injustice he felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to continue following the matches of this World Cup,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my own way of speaking up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Egypt'sHassan speaks with referee Francois Letexier [Roberto Schmidt\/AFP]\u2018They wanted Messi to stay\u2019<\/p>\n

After Yasser Ibrahim\u2019s header put Egypt in front, Argentina were awarded a penalty for a trip on Nicolas Tagliafico.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s problems with World Cup penalties continued as his effort was saved by Mostafa Shobeir.<\/p>\n

The eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner has now failed to score four of his eight non-shootout spot-kicks at the World Cup, including two misses at this tournament.<\/p>\n

Hassan speculated that the officials had been put under pressure to keep one of the biggest names in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running,\u201d he told BeIN Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champions received support at every level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Egypt had been surprisingly attacking early on in the game, a departure from Hassan\u2019s usual tactic of playing with a tight defence and looking for counterattack opportunities.<\/p>\n

It helped them take an early lead, but it was the heroics of goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir that ensured they remained in front by half-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very satisfied with the effort they put in. Most of our players come from the Egyptian domestic league, while many players in other national teams are based in Europe and live in that professional environment,\u201d Hassan added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet with predominantly local players \u2013 besides Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush \u2013 we were able to compete with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassan also complained about the scheduling of the match for a noon kick-off (16:00 GMT), just four days after both sides had won their round of 32 matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen are the players supposed to eat? At 7:30am?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of things to be questioned on and off the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition,\u2019 Hassan said after his team was knocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,17706,527,1259,44,457,82,772,1690,13009,13010],"class_list":["post-787221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-egypt","tag-football","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}