By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…Messi loses second penalty kick in same tournament
WORLD NUMBER one ranked men’s football team, three times world champions and Defending Champions,Argentina Survived a terrible scare before they could oust Pharaohs of Egypt in the Red Sea of the 2026 World Cup with two late goals that earned them a 3-2 split decision win.
It was a thrilling encounter at Atlanta Stadium Tuesday that saw nine times Ballon D’Or winner, Lionel Messi miss his 2nd penalty kick in a single world cup tournament.
Argentine Lisandro Martinez had conceded a corner kick from where Marwan Attia’s cross found Yesser Ibrahim who nodded it into goal for Egypt in the 15th minute. Egypt took advantage of a fast break with Haissem Hassan who located Mostafa Zico to score the 2nd goal for Egypt in the 67th minute.
Egypt has Al Ahly Goalkeeper, Mostafa Shobair to thank for the many saves of the match. Haissem Hassan fouled on Nicolas Tgliafico but Lionel Messi left footer penalty kick was saved by Shobair (24 years) in the 21st minute. His father, Ahmed Shobair now aged 65 years had kept for the same club and country at the 1990 world cup.
Argentina broke a record because the country has never won a world cup match where they are trailing at half time more so nobody expected Egypt will lose the match they were winning 2-0. Egyptians were already celebrating but football analysts would know that almost all the African countries were scored and beaten from the 85th minute.
Messi who looked like a cornered cat losing his 2nd penalty kick in this tournament has had 150 penalty kicks across his career and missed 34 of which 4 were in the world cup having an enviable record of the Most penalty kicks missed by any player. Note that the stats given here does not include matches that ended in penalty shootouts.
Old soldiers they say never die as Messi as captain motivated his team telling them to be number one in the world no be Wasa (a terminology in military parlance for them to wind down in relaxation with games).
Messi gave a cross to Christian Ramero to head into the net at 79th minute for Argentina’s 1st goal and in the 83rd minute Messi equalised after Mohammed Salah falling back conceded a corner kick and Goncalo Montuel found him.
As everyone were waiting for extra time or subsequent penalty shootouts the jinx on African teams gripped Egypt when Lisandro Martinez from a fast break found Enzo Fernandez in the 90+2 minute for the winner. Egypt could not retaliate even in the 10 minutes instead of 7 minutes added time given them.
It would have been a great set back for Argentina that expectedly dominated the game with 17-4 shots at goal, 7-2 on target, held the ball 61-39% stringing a huge 600-337 passes with 6-1 corner kicks. They were desperate towards the 75th minute which made their foul calls to rise to 13-10 butc all the 3 yellow cards were flashed to Egypt.
Argentina ranked no 1 in the world in 19 appearances won the world cup in 1978, 1986 and are defending champions having won it in 2022. Egypt ranked 29th with 4 appearances have this second round of 16 reach as best performance after making that stage in 1934.
So Argentina will meet winner of the Columbia versus Switzerland in the last of round of 16 matches at 9pm tonight.
Quarterfinals pairing as follows:
1 Fra vs Mor Thursday 9th
2 Esp vs Bel Friday 10th
3 Nor vs Eng Sat 11th
4 Arg vs winner of Swi/Col
#FIFA #2026WORLDCUP #CONMEBOL #CAF #AFA #EFF #NFF.
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