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Français (Afrique)Argentina produced a sensational turnaround victory against Egypt to go through to the Quarter-Finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It was an unbelievable performance from the reigning champions, who turned it all around within 20 minutes at the Atlanta Stadium.
La Albiceleste will now face either of Colombia or Switzerland in the last 8 stage whereas the Egyptian Pharaohs will have to return with a hard fought loss, a result that once seemed unlikely to happen before Argentina’s resurgence.
Egypt shocked the reigning world champions early on. Yasser Ibrahim opened the scoring in the 15th minute, heading home from a corner.
Argentina had a perfect opportunity to equalize just five minutes later, but goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir saved Lionel Messi’s penalty. Egypt then doubled their lead in the 67th minute when Mostafa Ziko scored on a quick counter-attack, putting the underdogs in a commanding position.
It seemed as if there was no way out for Argentina yet they had a belief in themselves that they could go on to win after going 2-0 down. It could have been 3-0 if Egypt’s 2ng goal wasn’t given a foul.
Egypt thought they had doubled their lead in the 59th minute when Mostafa Zico finished a brilliant counter-attack. However, following a VAR review, the referee disallowed the goal after ruling that Marwan Attia had fouled defender Lisandro Martínez at the other end of the pitch before the breakaway began.
Egypt’s actual second goal came in the 67th minute. Mostafa Zico caught Argentina’s defense off guard during a rapid counter-attack, calmly slotting the ball past goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. The strike briefly put Egypt 2-0 ahead before Argentina began their late comeback.
Faced with an unexpected exit, Argentina mounted a furious late rally. The comeback began in the 79th minute when Cristian Romero met a cross with a powerful header to make it 2-1. Just four minutes later, Messi redeemed his earlier penalty miss by smashing home a loose ball inside the box to level the score.
The drama peaked in stoppage time. In the 92nd minute, Enzo Fernandez got on the end of another cross from the right and guided a header into the top corner. The goal triggered massive celebrations and secured a historic comeback win for Argentina after being two goals down.
Lionel Messi broke the all-time tournament record by scoring in his ninth consecutive World Cup match, extending a streak that started in 2022. He also tied Guillermo Stabile’s 1930 record for most goals by an Argentine in a single edition (8), alongside extending his own World Cup career goals record to 21.