The reaction to Egypt's World Cup exit has been furious and emotionally charged.Having led 2-0, Argentina scored three times in 14 minutes to claw their way into the quarter-finals.Egyptian ire is directed at Fifa and, by extension, the match officials. And where there is controversy, VAR is never far away.ReactionCoach Hossam Hassan called Argentina's stunning comeback win “undeserved” and said that the final result is a “far cry from the ‘fair play’ that Fifa talks about”.Former Pharaohs striker Mido went a step further and accused Fifa of outright corruption.“Today would have been a scandal for Fifa had Egypt knocked out Argentina because Fifa would have lost millions of sponsorship money,” he said on his Odet El Lebs TV show.Referee Francois Letexier was accused of bias towards Argentina. Mostafa Zico, scorer of Egypt's second goal, had an earlier effort chalked off after a VAR review and didn't hold back in his post-match comments.“The referee is not fair. He is unjust; it’s just blatant injustice,” a tearful Zico said.Why are Egypt so upset?There are three major bones of contention, so let's examine them closely.Egypt led through Yasser Ibrahim's 15th-minute header. Mostafa Shobeir saved a Lionel Messi penalty. The Pharaohs went into the half-time break dreaming of a World Cup upset.They were positively giddy on 58 minutes when Mostafa Ziko put them 2-0 ahead … or so they thought.Haissem Hassan, picked ahead of Omar Marmoush, kept the ball in play while hugging the touchline. He escaped the would-be challenges of several Argentina defenders before passing to Mohamed Salah. Salah then weighted a perfect ball with the outside of his left foot into the path of Ziko, who dinked his finish over the advancing Emi Martinez. It should have been one of the goals of the tournament.Marawan Attia challenges Argentina's Lisandro Martinez in the build-up to Egypt's disallowed second goal. AFPInfoVAR asked Letexier to review an incident in the build-up. Argentina defender Lisandro Martinez was shielding the ball down by the corner flag when he attempted to go past two Egyptian players towards their goal.TV replays showed one of them, Marwan Attia, pulling the Argentine's shirt as he passed him and accidentally stamping on his foot.Letexier missed the infringement at the time. After reviewing the footage, the official announced he was reversing his decision: no goal. Argentina were awarded a free kick instead.The next major talking points came in quick succession, both involving incidents in Argentina's penalty area before La Albiceleste scored their third goal.First, substitute Hamdy Fathy went down in the area after his shirt was pulled by Alexis Mac Allister. No foul was given. Hamdy Fathy, centre, and Mohamed Salah appeal to referee Francois Letexier for a penalty. ReutersInfoIn the same passage of play, Salah advanced into the area one-on-one against Julian Alvarez. Salah squeezed the ball past, and as he did, Alvarez stuck out a foot. There was contact with Salah's right foot, and the Egypt captain went down, claiming a penalty.Letexier was having none of it. Argentina broke on the counter-attack. Lautaro Martinez sent in a cross from the right and Enzo Fernandez powered home a header. It was Argentina's third goal in 14 minutes. The clock read 93 minutes.Egypt's Mohamed Salah in action against Argentina. Later in the game, he would have his penalty appeal waved off. ReutersInfoThe Egyptian players and bench were furious. Shobeir was booked for protesting. Fathy followed suit and had his name taken. A member of the Egyptian backroom staff raced on to the pitch to confront the officials, and was shown a red card.Coach Hassan was irate and shown a yellow card.It didn't matter. Argentina were going through; Egypt were heading home.The National's sports editor's verdictAt the risk of sounding unpopular and being pelted with eggs, I think the match officials got all of these particular decisions right.Martinez is fouled before Zico's disallowed goal. His shirt is pulled and his foot is trodden on as he tries to continue his run. A double whammy. Egypt can have few complaints.The two penalty decisions are where you can argue either way. For me, the threshold for awarding a penalty has to be higher than that for awarding a free kick for a foul outside the area. In my opinion, both Fathy and Salah are guilty of going down too easily. Let's take Fathy's incident first. In no other walk of life would a fully grown man tumble to the floor, screaming. It's embarrassing.In Salah's case, yes, Alvarez makes contact with Salah's foot, but the way Salah goes to ground, it's clear to me that he is looking for a penalty rather than trying to advance and take a shot at goal. I honestly think if he had stayed on his feet, Egypt might still be in the World Cup. The International Football Association Board's rules state that a penalty can be awarded for, among other things, holding an opponent and tripping or attempting to trip an opponent if committed carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force. I don't think either Fathy's or Salah's case qualifies.Referee Francois Letexier shows a red card to a member of the Egypt bench. ReutersInfoEgypt supporters online are asking why their two penalty appeals weren't reviewed by VAR. They were. All incidents are. The VAR official determines whether the on-field referee has made a "clear and obvious error" and then asks them to review the pitchside monitor. In this case, they didn't.I fully expect to be in the minority on this, and I'm not saying it to be contrarian. I think VAR is good for the game and that the overwhelming majority of the calls are the right ones, including the one that saw Egypt benefit in the group phase against New Zealand.Egypt can be proud of their achievements at this World Cup: A first win, a first appearance in the knockout round and pushing mighty Messi's Argentina all the way.I'm sure that counts for little at the moment, but in time, hopefully Egyptian fans will come to appreciate just how far their team has come and be proud; Ziko had a breakout tournament; Shoebir saved two penalties and will surely attract the attention of European clubs for his performances. Salah became the country's leading scorer at World Cups. There is plenty to be positive about.Egypt coach Hossam Hassan is shown a yellow card by referee Francois Letexier. ReutersInfoThere are also plenty of reasons to be mad at Fifa, especially for the shameful way they capitulated to Donald Trump's request to suspend Folarin Balogun's red card ahead of the Belgium match.I'm sure there are favourites within football's governing body, and seeing Messi lift the World Cup again wouldn't be the worst thing for promoting the success of this World Cup. But we all love an underdog story; there were plenty of neutrals hoping Egypt would beat Argentina – myself included. Saudi Arabia's win over Argentina at Qatar 2022 wasn't denigrated; it was celebrated. Egypt's would have been too.Accusing the match officials of bias and favouritism does feel like sour grapes.App users: Click here to download the World Cup wall chart