Things have taken a wild turn after the round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt took place. Another bizarre incident revolving around Argentina has come up, which does raise some eyebrows about a serious controversy.

“Yesterday, they told me that I had to give the award to Messi,” said Argentine rapper Bizarrap in an interview, after which he took a pause and changed his words. “I mean to give the award to whoever the Player of the Match was.”

Bizarrap’s slip of the tongue has fueled ongoing internet conspiracy theories suggesting that someone may have fixed Lionel Messi’s individual awards. The critics have been hinting at corruption and a scripted narrative since the final whistle blew at the Argentina vs Egypt match.

Bizzarap, like every Messi fan, felt overjoyed with fandom and optimism that his team would win when they presented him with this opportunity. It was purely a slip of the tongue in his defense, something that he wanted to happen and not something he was already told would happen.

Egypt led until the 86th minute, after which the game suddenly flipped. Argentina sealed its win with a 3-2 victory and moved further into the quarterfinals.

The Egyptian team was not happy with the result, not because they didn’t succeed in advancing to the next round. The anger was fueled because they believed the officiating team had “double standards”. They even accused the officiating team of rigging the match to keep Lionel Messi and the defending champions in the tournament.

These controversies arose after the disqualification of Egypt’s second goal. Egypt’s Mostafa Zico scored a brilliant breakaway goal to double their cushion. However, French referee François Letexier overturned the goal after a VAR check. Many believed that the foul was a soft touch on the other end of the ground and violated the spirit of the game.

There was also an alleged incident that fans believe was not in favor of the Egyptian team. After Enzo Fernández scored for Argentina, an incident took place. Julián Álvarez allegedly fouled the Egyptian captain, Mohamed Salah, inside the penalty area. Even Hamdi Fathy claimed Alexis Mac Allister held him back. Egypt coach Hossam Hassan voiced the strongest protest.

“We have been cheated unfairly today. Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running,” he said.

One thing this World Cup has shown is unpredictability. A very similar match happened between Belgium and Senegal in the round of 32.

Belgium was trailing 2-0 with only five minutes left in normal time. In the 86th minute, Belgian substitute Romelu Lukaku scored to give the Red Devils a lifeline. Youri Tielemans’ dramatic equalizer followed this in the 89th minute. They won that match by scoring the winning goal in extra time. The same element of not giving up led Messi and his squad to make a comeback despite all the controversies. Football can be unpredictable, but that’s the beauty of it.