And the drama continues. In a few days, it will be a week since Argentina and Egypt faced off, but the drama from that game is continuing off the field. Another Egypt player has now come out and said that the referee is the main reason that Argentina won that quarterfinal game.
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“We were solid defensively and efficient offensively. We can fight the opposition, but not the referee,” said Haissem Hassan while talking in an interview.
Egypt came within touching distance of pulling off one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history. But instead of celebrating a win over Argentina, they are still talking about refereeing decisions that they think changed the entire game.
“Unfortunately, I still do not understand why it was disallowed,” said Haissem Hassan after looking back at Egypt’s heartbreaking Round of 16 defeat.
The winger believes the overturned goal, which was supposed to be the second goal for Egypt, completely changed the game before Argentina fought back from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
Marwan Attia found him inside Egypt’s half and wasted no time in passing the ball to Hassan, who glided past defenders and slipped the ball to Mohamed Salah, who squared it perfectly for Mostafa Zico for the finish. VAR, however, spotted Attia stepping on Lisandro Martínez’s foot earlier in the play that led to Egypt winning the ball, cutting the celebrations short.
Although Egypt eventually got their second goal of the game through Zico only, Hassan admitted that the players felt a deep sense of injustice after watching their brilliant goal get disallowed. He even suggested that Argentina would not have seen the same goal ruled out if it had happened to the World Champions.
The frustration doesn’t end with Hassan. Even Egyptian manager Hossam Hassan and goalscorer Mostafa Zico voiced the same emotion right after the game.
“No fair, no fair, referee no fair,” Zico accused referee François Letexier. “Unjust… it is a clear and obvious injustice… He is wasting the effort of an entire country. From the very beginning of the match, he was against us… It’s a rigged tournament.”
Coach Hossam Hassan went even further in his postgame interview. He also claimed that someone rigged the match for Argentina to win, as the officials did not even review some of the appeals by Egypt.
“What happened was unfair. Egypt deserved to qualify. We were the better team.”
Egypt’s Football Association later filed an official complaint with FIFA against Letexier and his refereeing team, saying, “The Egyptian Football Association cannot remain silent regarding the refereeing decisions.”
FIFA, however, backed its officials despite the growing criticism. Refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina insisted Attia clearly committed a foul, making the VAR intervention completely valid. He also rejected every suggestion of favoritism, saying FIFA referees cannot be influenced by anyone or anything.
With Egypt standing by its complaint, this World Cup controversy does not look like ending anytime soon.
