Argentina launch astonishing fightback to break Egypt hearts at World Cup

The African nation will be gutted about the result as they had largely contained the defending champions for much of the contest and were really dangerous on the counter-attack.

Egypt took the lead after 15 minutes when defender Yasser Ibrahim was the onlhy one alert in the box and rose highest to power a header into the back of the net.

The South American side, stunned by their slow start, sprang into the action and were awarded a penalty when Nicolas Tagliafico was fouled in the box.

Lionel Messi stepped up for the spot-kick but was denied by Egyptian goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir, with the Argentina superstar now holding the record for penalty misses at four in the six World Cups that he has played in.

Shobeir then pulled off two world-class saves from point-blank range when the shot-stopper denied both Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez when a goal looked certain and Egypt preserved their 1-0 advantage going into the half-time break.

Hossam Hassan's charges started the second half with a similar plan, compact in defence but looking to break quickly when the opportunities came to put the Argentina defence under pressure.

Egypt thought they had doubled their lead just before the hour mark when Haissem Hassan brilliantly beat three players down the right-hand side before Mostafa Ziko beat goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez but VAR intervened and the goal was disallowed for a foul in the build up.

Ziko was not to be denied though and made it 2-0 in the 67th minute when another quick counter-attack saw Hassan in the box and crossing for the Egyptian forward to finish.

Argentina created little in attack in the second half but pulled a goal back when Cristian Romero headed in with 11 minutes remaining before Messi slammed home his 21st World Cup goal for the equaliser in the 83rd minute.

The game seemed to slow down as both teams seemed to be content to go into extra-time but one final attack from Argentina saw Enzo Fernandez bury a header into the back of the net to give Argentina the comeback victory.

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