To be on the cusp of their nation’s greatest triumph and see it collapse in ten minutes was too much for many of the Egyptian side that lost 3-2 to Argentina on Tuesday. ‘It is clear that this tournament has been fixed,’ said winger Mostafa Ziko, whose goal was chalked off by the video assistant referee. The Egyptian FA wants the referees banned from the remainder of the tournament. Manager Hossam Hassan suggested it was a Fifa conspiracy ‘to keep the world champion in the competition… Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.’ Are they right?
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Patrick West
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The main point of contention was the disallowed Ziko goal that would have put Egypt 2-0 up in the 59th minute. Winger Haissem Hassan received the ball in his own half and weaved through the Argentine defence before squaring it to Ziko, who stabbed it past the keeper. It should have been one of the goals of the tournament, but the VAR referee deemed there had been a foul at the other end of the pitch 17 seconds earlier: an Egyptian defender had accidentally stepped on Lisandro Martínez’s toes, so no goal.
