\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentina pulled off one of the comebacks of the year as they clawed their way back from two goals down to win 3-2 against Egypt in the 2026 World Cup on Tuesday. The game, which became an instant classic, provided plenty of food for thought and left nobody indifferent.<\/p>\n
The game was on the cover of most major sports newspapers. Italy\u2019s La Gazzetta dello Sport titled \u201cMessi\u2019s ecstasy,\u201d while France\u2019s L\u2019Equipe went with \u201cThe miracles of the Nile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Bild branded it \u201cMessi magic,\u201d while United States-based sports site The Athletic called it an \u201call-time great World Cup comeback.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The game even made the front pages of several Spanish newspapers, despite Spain itself securing its ticket to the quarters on the same day. AS referenced the survival drama film about the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountains, going with \u201cViven,\u201d while Mundo Deportivo titled \u201cPharoah Messi.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news also made the cover of the United States daily newspaper The Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the most widely circulated newspaper from the city where the game was played.<\/p>\n
Controversies also in the spotlight The epics by Argentina and its captain, Lionel Messi, weren\u2019t the only things international outlets highlighted.<\/p>\n
Madrid-based Marca, the sports outlet with the highest readership in Spain, questioned the refereeing decisions in the Argentina game, taken by Francois Letexier, who correctly disallowed an Egypt goal and awarded a penalty that Messi missed.<\/p>\n
Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Ahram said the match \u201cwill be remembered less for Argentina\u2019s resilience and more for the storm of controversy surrounding the officiating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Qatari outlet Al Jazeera highlighted Letexier\u2019s decision to disallow what would\u2019ve been, at the time, Egypt\u2019s second goal after the play started with a foul on an Argentine player, calling it an \u201cunusually late\u201d summon by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also pointed to the close relationship between Argentine president Javier Milei and U.S. mandatary Donald Trump, who, just days earlier, had admitted to speaking with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to review a red card on U.S. star Folarin Balogun.<\/p>\n
The VAR call was at the center of complaints, with former England international and pundit Alan Shearer criticizing the consistency of the calls and pointing out a potential foul on Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah at the start of the play that led to Argentina\u2019s third goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither both are fouls, or neither is a foul,\u201d posted Shearer on his X account.<\/p>\n
Another former England striker, Ian Wright, highlighted the same difference while commenting on the game for the British public-service television network ITV.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to pull it back for Argentina on the edge of the box to disallow a goal, you have to pull it back for this one with Mo Salah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Several outlets reported an alleged quote by Real Madrid head coach Jos\u00e9 Mourinho calling the game \u201cdaylight robbery,\u201d although Al Jazeera later posted a correction on its article, removing the quote after being \u201cunable to find a trustworthy source\u201d for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Herald has also been unable to confirm whether Mourinho made the comments in question.<\/p>\n
Cover image: Selecci\u00f3n Argentina Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina pulled off one of the comebacks of the year as they clawed their way back from two goals down to win 3-2 against Egypt in the 2026 World Cup on Tuesday. The game, which became an instant classic, provided plenty of food for thought and left nobody indifferent. The game was on the cover […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":87594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,69,66,1373,67,339],"tags":[5307,6040,1368,1371,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-87593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-football","category-lionel-messi","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-football","tag-lionel-messi","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}