Egypt’s remarkable World Cup journey came to a heartbreaking end in the round of 16, where they suffered a 3-2 defeat against defending champions Argentina, despite holding a two-goal advantage.
Hossam Hassan’s team initially took control of the match, going ahead 2-0 with goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Zico. However, Argentina rallied in the closing minutes to secure their spot in the quarter-finals.
Ibrahim kicked things off in the 15th minute, scoring with a header from a corner delivered by Marwan Attia. Just before halftime, Egypt’s goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir saved a penalty from Lionel Messi, keeping Argentina at bay as they sought to level the score.
In the second half, Zico had a goal disallowed by VAR, but he found the back of the net in the 67th minute after a swift counterattack involving both Mohamed Salah and Haissem Hassan. Argentina struck back in the 79th minute with Cristian Romero heading in from a Messi cross. Just four minutes later, Messi equalized, and Enzo Fernández clinched the win with a goal in stoppage time.
This defeat marked the end of Egypt’s deepest World Cup run to date. They managed to draw with Belgium and Iran, celebrated their first-ever World Cup victory against New Zealand, and triumphed over Australia in a penalty shootout to reach the knockout stage.
With this loss, Egypt’s unbeaten streak at the tournament came to a close, as they exited following their historic performance. Argentina will now face either Switzerland or Colombia in the quarter-finals.
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Mostafa Shoubeir, who repelled a spot-kick from IR Iran’s Mehdi Taremi in the group stage, became only the fourth goalkeeper to save two penalties in games in one World Cup. The 26-year-old emulated Pole Jan Tomaszewski, American Brad Friedel and another Pole in Wojciech Szczesny.
Enzo Fernández scored the 3,000th goal in World Cup history.
