Egypt surrender 2-goal lead to gift Argentina a comeback victory
By Joel Masibo, July 7, 2026Defending champions Argentina came from two goals down to win 3-2 against Egypt in the World Cup Round of 16 tie on Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
The breakthrough moment came in the 15th minute when Egypt worked a short corner, which was eventually swung in by Marwan Ateya. Yasser Ibrahim jumped above Lisandro Martinez and powered his header into the far corner.
In the 21st minute, the leading goalscorer in World Cup history, Lionel Messi, took his penalty to the goalkeeper’s left, but Mostafa Shobeir in the Egyptian post guessed the right way to keep Egypt in front against the world champions, as Messi missed from the spot.
Egypt thought they had scored their second goal only for Mostafa Zico’s strike to be disallowed in the 58th minute following a foul on Lisandro Martinez in the build-up.
Moments later, after the VAR denied him, Mostafa Zico scored again on the counter. Argentina failed to make use of their corner, and Mohamed Salah led a swift counter. He eventually played Hassan Hassan into the box, whose cut-back was fired in by Zico.
Argentina’s comeback
Right on cue for the defending champions, Messi produced the moment of quality they needed. His pinpoint cross is headed goal-bound by Christian Romero in the 79th minute, and Shobeir could not keep it out.
Egypt failed to clear their lines from a cross, and Gonzalo Montiel found Messi for a shot at goal. The Argentina captain made no mistake with his first-time strike, which was parried onto the crossbar and in by Shobeir to make it 2-2 in the 83rd minute.
Enzo Fernandez then completed the Argentina comeback in the 92nd minute to send the world champions into the quarter-finals.
Heading into the match, Argentina were still on course to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to retain their World Cup title, though they survived an almighty scare in the round of 32.
Lionel Scaloni’s side defeated debutants Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time, courtesy of an own goal from Diney Borges. Nevertheless, Argentina had also won each of their last eight World Cup matches against African nations, including two in 2026 (3-0 v Algeria, 3-2 v Cape Verde). No side in the competition’s history has ever won three games against African opponents in a single edition before.
Egypt also overcame a nervy affair in the previous round, defeating Australia on penalties, but Hossam Hassan’s men have proved to be a threat in this tournament. Heading into the fixture, the Pharaohs were yet to lose at this year’s edition (W1 D3), after having lost five of seven games at the finals before 2026. Egypt were looking to become only the fifth African nation to reach the quarter-final of the World Cup, after Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002), Ghana (2010), and Morocco (2022 and 2026).