{"id":1241,"date":"2026-07-08T06:52:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/?p=1241"},"modified":"2026-07-08T06:52:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:52:47","slug":"argentina-produce-epic-world-cup-fightback-to-beat-egypt-reach-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/2026\/07\/08\/argentina-produce-epic-world-cup-fightback-to-beat-egypt-reach-quarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina produce epic World Cup fightback to beat Egypt, reach quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

 Argentina staged a stunning comeback from 2-0 down to avoid a stunning exit at the hands of Egypt and prolong Lionel Messi’s World Cup career with a 3-2 win to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

reach the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holders looked down and out when goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko, either side of Messi having a penalty saved, put the Pharaohs in sight of a historic victory in Atlanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Cristian Romero’s header sparked the comeback as Argentina struck three times in the final 11 minutes plus stoppage time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Messi smashed home the equaliser to score for a ninth consecutive World Cup game and retake the lead for the Golden Boot with eight this tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enzo Fernandez completed the turnaround with a superb header two minutes into stoppage time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end, Messi shed tears of joy as he embraced his teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was almost too choked up to speak afterwards, saying: “I’m really emotional right now. What a group of players, man.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt were left furious after a number of controversial calls went against them, including adisallowed goal early in the second half, and a member of their coaching staff was red-carded in the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

aftermath of the winning goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite a second almighty scare against African opposition, Argentina will face either Colombia orSwitzerland in the last eight on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scaloni attempted to refresh a side that looked dead on their feet in the closing stages of a 3-2 win over Cape Verde in the last 32 on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicolas Tagliafico, Leandro Paredes and Julian Alvarez came in from the team that started in Miami, but Argentina got off to another slow start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marwan Attia’s deep cross to the back post was powered home by Yasser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina had the chance to level five minutes later when Tagliafico was wiped out by Haissem Hassan inside the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there was another chapter to Messi’s misery from the penalty spot at World Cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eight-time Ballon d’Or’s strike was tentative and Mostafa Shobeir flew to his left to save, meaning Messi has now missed four of his eight non-shootout penalties at World Cups. He also became<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the first player to miss two in a single tournament, having also failed to hit the target against Austria in the group stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The penalty save was just the start of Shobeir’s inspired afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexis Mac Allster’s powerful header from point-blank range was next to be parried by the Al Ahly stopper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shobeir then produced one of the saves of the tournament to prevent Alvarez’s shot finding the bottom corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt thought they had doubled their lead on the hour mark after a brilliant counter-attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohamed Salah played in Mostafa Ziko, who dinked the ball perfectly over the onrushing Emi Martinez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Egyptian celebrations were cut short by a hugely controversial VAR intervention for a foul on Lisandro Martinez, just outside the Egypt box, at the start of the build-up to the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision finally fired up the majority Argentine crowd, but they were silenced once more moments later by another blistering Egyptian break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salah again led the charge before feeding Hassan and his cross was swept in by Zico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina looked like a beaten side with Messi among those who head was bowed during the second-half drinks break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Romero’s header — that Shoubir just failed to keep out — sparked a remarkable revival as the defending champions hauled themselves off the canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moments later a dazzling run by Messi teed up Lautaro Martinez, who headed just wide and Messi was to have his moment of redemption seven minutes from time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonzalo Montiel fed the ball back for his captain to strike sweetly on the half volley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoubir again got a touch but couldn’t get it out as the ball cannonned in off the bar for Messi’s 21st World Cup goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Fernandez’s bullet header from Lautaro Martinez’s cross completed the fightback and Argentina’s\u00a0relief was on full display after the final whistle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post by News Desk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Argentina staged a stunning comeback from 2-0 down to avoid a stunning exit at the hands of Egypt and prolong Lionel Messi’s World Cup career with a 3-2 win to reach…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,109,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-international","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1243,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions\/1243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailytherepublic.com\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}