Little magician Messi leads late 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 hulking arenas and bottomless bowls, Atlanta's tops the lot. They used 27,000 tonnes of steel to build a unique thunderdome, the same amount required to build three US Navy destroyers.

They could’ve done with a little more.

With the huge ringed screen hanging above showing 83 minutes and Argentina a circle of hell, Lionel Messi swished his left leg at a dropping ball and saw it crash in off the goal frame. The structural framework of this stadium felt like it might give way. 

Arenas built in 2017 for a couple of billion aren’t meant to sway. This one did. It shook from its very top as all the way down there the 39-year-old wonder 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 when they looked destined to go crashing out. It was only 2-2 but momentum felt an unstoppable force now. Indeed it was.

New history courtesy of old means. Messi means. No team had ever come back from 2-0 down so late in a World Cup game to win without extra time, 

Enzo Fernandez’s injury-time head the winner. As teardrops watered grass scorched in a scintillating contest, Lionel Scaloni was turned mute. 

“I can't talk,” he mumbled in an 11-second post-match interview. “I'm very emotional.” 

Messi’s tears flowed too. Later he’d say “I am extremely happy for the people who can celebrate and enjoy our progress” as if knowing many hadn’t yet been able to compose themselves enough to enjoy it. A Kansas City quarter-final is next.

Mohammed Salah cried plenty as well. He’d helped Egypt to the brink of their own history only to be guilty of the giveaway on the decisive fifth goal. Many of his countrymen raged at the part French referee Francois Letexier and an abysmal VAR crew played. 

Hossam Hassan’s side deserved better but so many have against Messi’s Argentina and almost all have left like this.

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 tries to destroy this sport, the game fires back harder. What a wondrous afternoon.

It featured enough plotlines to fill this huge space: the man named after Zico twice thought he’d put Egypt 2-0 up and streaking towards somewhere very special. 

The first was called back thanks to a diabolical VAR interruption, a foul happening 100 yards away and ages before. A decision completely out of keeping with the tournament. 

Nine minutes later, with just over 20 to go, Salah would lead another lightning Egyptian break and Ziko would cash home this time. No overturning it.

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

Argentina had largely been a rabble, looking exhausted from Cape Verde’s challenge. But 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 Fernandez buried for new bedlam. Egypt screamed for fresh VAR intervention but it never came. Yellows and reds flung the way of their irate bench.

“The referee is unfair. He wasted the effort of an entire nation,” raged Ziko. "The cup is being given to Argentina.” 

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. Perhaps Cristiano Ronaldo and Roberto Martinez, whose respective self-obsession and sycophancy dragged Portugal out in Dallas, were happy with that. 

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

The last matinee of this World Cup didn’t threaten distraction on paper. 

The second-most lopsided encounter of the Last 16 was seen as another soft landing for Argentina. 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. By the hour mark, the Pharaohs had torn up every script coming in here.

They were 2-0 to the good, Ibrahim bulleting a header past Emi Martinez after just 15 minutes in a first half that we’d thought was drama-filled 'til the second arrived. 

Four minutes after the opener, Messi missed yet another World Cup penalty. Does it somehow make him stronger?

He can’t do it alone, of course. 

Amid so many poor displays in powder blue and white, Romero stepped up in a big way, Lautaro Martinez helped change it off the bench and Leandro Paredes produced a pivotal tackle in added time with the game still 2-2 and Egypt breaking four on three.

All in all, it took just 14 minutes for them to go from 2-0 and doomed to 3-2 up and destined. 

For where? Kansas and whatever comes next. 

As they threw Messi into the air he looked remarkably light. A full 27,000 tonnes lifted off him and the rest.

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