Little magician Messi leads Argentina fightback to beat Egypt and seal quarter-final berth

By the end, the tears flowed for Lionel Messi. They were the right kind. The third goal had arrived, remarkably without much help from him. He’d done enough.

GOAT: Argentina's Lionel Messi celebrates. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

World Cup Last 16: Argentina 3 Egypt 2 

In a World Cup of huge, hulking arenas and bottomless bowls, Atlanta Stadium tops the lot. They used 27,000 tonnes of steel to create a truly unique thunderdome.

Because this is the way such things are measured in these parts, it was the same amount of steel that would be required to build three US Navy destroyers.

They could’ve done with a little bit more.

With the huge ringed screen hanging above the place showing 83 minutes on its clocks and Argentina in some circle of hell, Lionel Messi swished his left boot at a dropping ball and saw it crash in off the goal frame. 

The structural framework of the stadium briefly felt like it might give way. Arenas built in 2017 for a couple of billion dollars aren’t meant to sway. 

This one did. It shook as the from its very top, all the way down there; the little man with 10 on his back ran to the corner and twice jumped for joy.

A jump for each lifeline he’d provided. 

Just four minutes earlier, his gorgeous cross planted on Cristian Romero’s head had hauled the defending champions back into it when they looked destined to go crashing out. It was only 2-2 but the momentum felt like an unstoppable force now.

Sixteen minutes later, the tears flowed for Messi. They were the right kind. The third goal had arrived, remarkably without much help from him. He’d done enough.

How to wrap it all up? Not easily done without a stage and an orchestra, to be honest. 

This was another swooping operatic game of knockout football. Another in a fresh line of them. It’s as if the harder Gianni Infantino and his wretched version of FIFA try to destroy their sport, the game fires back harder. What a wondrous second half here. 

It featured enough plotlines to fill the huge space: a man named after Zico — this one with a K — twice thought he’d put Egypt 2-0 up and streaking towards somewhere very special. The first one was called back thanks to a diabolical VAR interruption. 

The foul had happened a length of the pitch away. No matter. Nine minutes later, with just over 20 to go, Mohammed Salah would lead another lightning Egyptian break and Ziko would cash home this time. No overturning it.

Argentina had mostly been a rabble, looking exhausted from extra-time and Cape Verde. But Lionel Scaloni found a little life off the bench and eternal life from his No.10. 

After hauling them level, the defiance of Mostafa Shobeir finally broken, Messi left it to Lisandro Martinez to conjure the winner, whipping in a stunning cross which Enzo Fernandez buried for new bedlam. Egypt screamed for a VAR intervention but it never came. 

There were yellows and reds flung the way of their irate bench.

But the last noises were the loudest — Argentine lungs and vocal chords shredded as they saluted Messi being tossed up into the air by his teammates at the centre circle. Not done yet.

After a Monday filled with ignominy and exits, Tuesday wasn’t slow in swooping in, things moving again. 

Perhaps Cristiano Ronaldo and Roberto Martinez, whose respective self-obsession and sycophancy had dragged Portugal out with a mortifying whimper in Dallas, would have been happy with that. 

Argentina's Enzo Fernandez scores their side's third goal of the game. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

So too the US, by which we mean the players, their manager, fans and political leadership, all of whom revelled in FIFA’s shameful fixing of the tournament rules in their favour only to immediately exit as a laughing-stock lampooned by the rest of the world.

Any chance of a distraction? 

The last matinee of this World Cup didn’t threaten it much on paper. The second-most lopsided encounter of the Last 16, Paraguay-France the most extreme, was seen as another soft landing for Argentina, enjoying a positively Southgate-ian route towards the quarters, perhaps even semi-final.

But paper ain’t what it used to be. Ask the Egyptians, who (kinda) invented it. The brand of red papyrus in a referee’s pocket, for instance, has been wholly devalued in recent days. By the half-hour mark, the Pharaohs had torn up pretty much every script coming in here.

They were 1-0 to the good, Ibrahim bulletin a header back across a statuesque Emi Martinez after just 15 minutes. 

They had made Argentina look ordinary by giving them the floor. Just four minutes after the opener, Haissem Hassan sent Nicolas Tagliafico directly to the floor with a clumsy clatter.

Messi stood off to the right waiting for the referee’s whistle and it felt like he looked a little sheepish. 

A man who can do everything struggles with this sport’s most basic thing. His penalty was particularly poor and Shobeir pushed it away with ease. The Albiceleste hordes launched into one of their volume of songs about him. A chant of comfort this time.

They didn’t have any ditties for Alexi Mac Allister or Julian Alvarez when both missed chances from closer range nine minutes apart, Shobeir pulling off great saves from both. 

At the hydration break, cameras had captured young Argentine fans already crying. 

By half-time their elders may have been fearing tears too.

Egypt hadn’t done a whole pile of a lot but didn’t have to. Their block was low and stubborn and everything about Argentina was sluggish. 

Ibrahim and Rabia were mostly solid at the heart of defence, and back in Montrose, Pico Lopes could have taken a little more pride from his campaign here — Cape Verde’s resistance had clearly drained something from an already imperfect Argentina. 

Amid many stark warning lights, they trailed a World Cup match for the first time in 16 years.

The lights looked all red in that chaotic nine-minute spell between the Ziko goal which wasn’t and then the one that was. But they found their way back and on to a quarter-final. Through the same way as ever. 

A No.10 unlike any other. Worth 27,000 tonnes and everything else you've got.

Argentina (4-1-3-2): Emiliano Martinez; Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico; Paredes; De Paul, Mac Allister, Fernandez; Messi, Alvarez.

Subs: Gonzalez for Tagliafico (66), Lisandro Martinez for De Paul (66), Montiel for Molina (73), Medina for Alvarez (90), Otamendi for Romero (90).

Goals: Romero (79), Messi (83), Enzo Fernandez (90+2).

Egypt (4-4–2): Shobeir; Hany, Rabia, Ibrahim, Hafez; Attia, Lasheen, Ashour, Hassan; Salah, Ziko.

Subs: Fathy for Ashour (HT), Trezeguet for Hassan (73), Marmoush for Zico (80), Zizo for Yashin (90).

Goals: Ibrahim (15); Zico (67) 

Referee: Francois Letexier (France).

Att: 68,239