{"id":514772,"date":"2026-07-07T22:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514772\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:12:09","slug":"fifa-world-cup-hossam-hassan-says-egypt-were-cheated-in-argentina-round-of-16-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514772\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Hossam Hassan says Egypt were \u2018cheated\u2019 in Argentina round of 16 defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Egypt'sEgypt’s defender Yasser Ibrahim celebrates scoring during the 2026 World Cup round of 16 football match between Argentina and Egypt at Atlanta Stadium. Photo \/ AFP<\/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 build-up 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, watching the matches of this World Cup,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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

\"Argentina'sArgentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the 2026 World Cup round of 16 football match between Argentina and Egypt at Atlanta Stadium. Photo \/ AFP<\/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

Hassan also complained about the scheduling of the match for a noon kickoff (1600GMT), 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

Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Egypt’s defender Yasser Ibrahim celebrates scoring during the 2026 World Cup round of 16 football match between Argentina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[41813,85430,74,8018,248281,23552,1320,22773,10542,5506,6097,19186,36862,71,213060,253391,78,4507,111,139,69,1118,6744,139400,18833,312,6102,213,117867,12825,3608,377],"class_list":["post-514772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-41813","tag-85430","tag-after","tag-argentina","tag-cheated","tag-claimed","tag-coach","tag-comeback","tag-cup","tag-defeat","tag-down","tag-egypt","tag-fifa","tag-from","tag-hassan","tag-hossam","tag-in","tag-late","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-place","tag-quarterfinals","tag-round","tag-says","tag-side","tag-sports","tag-staged","tag-stunning","tag-were","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}