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For 79 minutes, the champions were dead.
Argentina were down 2-0 to Egypt in Atlanta, Lionel Messi had a penalty saved and the Pharaohs counterattacked like a team with no interest in a moral victory. They just had to hang on in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup and keep the reigning champions at bay.
Then came three goals in 14 minutes, resulting in a 3-2 final and saving Argentina a place in the quarter-finals with defeat.
Here are my four takeaways from a game that cost Argentines years of life:
1. Argentina can win lousy. That’s what champions do.
(Photo by Marcel Bonte/Soccrates/Getty Images)
Let’s not sugarcoat it: Argentina is suffering. It took 120 minutes and an own goal for Cape Verde to survive. Against Egypt, they lost two points, strongly favored in both matches and in view of the exit. He also had a break – Mostafa Zico had scored earlier when VAR found Marawan Attia fouling Lisandro Martínez with a full step to go. Even the FOX show squirmed at that one.
But here’s the thing about serial winners: they don’t have to be brilliant, they have to be alive when the final whistle blows. Cristian Romero headed in a Messi cross. Messi equalized. Enzo Fernández buried the winner on a cross from Lautaro Martínez, on a counter launched after the dispossession of Mohamed Salah at the entrance to the Argentine penalty area. From 2-0 to 3-2 in a flash. Pretty? No. The mark of a champion? Absolutely.
2. Messi missed a penalty. Then he reminded everyone who he was.
The missed penalty should have been the story. Mostafa Shobeir dove to his right and slotted home Messi’s spot-kick before the first hydration break – his second penalty miss of the tournament (the first player to miss two penalties in a single World Cup) after the miss against Austria. A 39-year-old man carrying a nation has again denied it. You would forgive him for shrinking.
Instead, he curled in the cross which Romero converted, then arrived in the 83rd minute to score the equalizer himself – his eighth World Cup goal, now all alone at the top of the Golden Boot race ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland.
He has scored in every match Argentina has played in this tournament. He broke the all-time record for assists in the World Cup. The man rewrites the record books on nights when everything works and nights when nothing works. This second type might be more impressive.
3. The pharaohs leave with their heads held high and new heroes.
What an adventure it was for Egypt. Undefeated in a group that included Belgium, topped Australia on penalties with a Mohamed Salah panenka and just minutes away from eliminating the world champions. And they did it in the way least expected: with an aging Salah as facilitator and Omar Marmoush – scoreless, unassisted and benched on Tuesday after a miserable tournament – reduced to a late appearance.
The little-known names were spoken instead. Yasser Ibrahim’s header in the 15th minute stunned Atlanta. Haïssem Hassan ran down the right flank on the counter, setting up Zico’s goal after a push from Salah. And Shobeir was magnificent – the penalty save, as well as the saves on Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister and Julián Álvarez. Egypt was brilliant on the counterattack. They just came up against the reigning champions. It happens.
4. Now the uncomfortable question: what is wrong with Argentina?
(Photo by Patrick Smith – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Because something is wrong. The legs felt heavy – understandable after 120 minutes in the furnace of Miami against Cape Verde, where Lionel Scaloni described his cramping team as “defending like a cornered cat”. The defense is even more fragile. Four goals conceded in two knockout matches, Ibrahim rising unmarked and Argentina catching up in transition again and again. Egypt’s disallowed goal and Zico’s goal came from almost identical counters. Good teams notice patterns like this. Spanish level teams will make them pay.
And the dependency problem persists: Messi has eight goals; no teammate was systematically dangerous. Álvarez continues to flash without igniting. Romero and Fernández stepped up their efforts on Tuesday – Argentina needs it every week, not every year. Champions can win ugly. They can’t continue to need miracles.
