Hossam Hassan insists his side “looked better than the reigning champions in everything”
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan has accused match officials of being unfair to his side and therefore costing them a place in the World Cup quarter-finals after their 3-2 defeat by Argentina.
Argentina recovered from 2-0 down to reach the last eight after Lionel Messi inspired the comeback, creating one goal before scoring the equaliser, with Enzo Fernandez netting a stoppage-time winner.
Egypt, however, ended the match angered by several refereeing decisions, including a goal that was disallowed after a VAR review and the decision not to review an alleged foul by Alexis Mac Allister in the buildup to the decisive goal.
“We looked better than the reigning champions – better in everything – but the result was influenced by internal factors on the pitch and external factors off it,” Hassan said.
“Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.
“In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champion received support at every level.”
The Egypt coach also questioned the appointment of French referee Francois Letexier, saying his federation had raised concerns before the match.
“There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome,” Hassan said. “We were objecting to the selection of the referee because of the French situation, but everybody has to suffer at some point, and we suffered.
“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out. It was not even checked by the VAR, and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
“I want to put it in beautiful words and say, ‘Hard luck’, but we have been treated unfairly and it has been an injustice.”
Hassan confirmed he confronted Letexier after the final whistle.
“What I told the referee was, ‘This is unfair,'” he said. “I said maybe he is carrying a scar or has something to hide. If somebody is trying to hide something, they often fail to hide it.”
Egypt goalscorer Mostafa Ziko added that “strange things happened on the pitch”.
“We were hard done by today, and everyone saw that,” Ziko said. “I won’t talk about something like this. We were winning 2-0. After the 2-0 result, everything went against us and worked against us. I don’t even know why the second goal was disallowed, I don’t see any reason for it.”
