Mohamed Adel, former Egyptian international referee, believes that the Egyptian national team did not suffer any refereeing injustice in their match against Argentina on Tuesday evening in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup.

Egypt bid farewell to the World Cup with a dramatic 3-2 loss to Argentina, despite leading 2-0 until the 79th minute.

The match, officiated by French referee François Letexier, witnessed several controversial refereeing decisions, sparking anger from the technical staff led by Hossam Hassan and the Pharaohs players, especially after the confirmation of Argentina's third goal in the 90+2 minute.

For his part, Mohamed Adel commented on the refereeing controversy in a phone interview on TEN channel, saying: 'I believe we did not lose because of the refereeing. Logically, with this referee, we were leading 2-0 until the 80th minute.'

He added: 'In Egypt's disallowed goal, there was a foul on Marwan Attia at the start of the play. VAR called the referee and showed him the stamping foot incident, so the referee was correct in his decision to disallow the goal.'

He continued: 'This play is completely different from Mohamed Salah's play before Argentina's third goal. In the disallowed goal, the stamping occurred when the ball was with the Argentine player, unlike Salah's play where the Argentine defender first intercepted the ball, and then a natural collision occurred that did not warrant a VAR call.'

Regarding Hamdy Fathy's shirt pull inside the penalty area before Argentina's third goal, the former international referee explained: 'The pull was not impactful, meaning it did not affect the player's ability to control the ball or prevent him from scoring. Such incidents happen in many matches and referees do not pay attention to them.'

He added: 'We started focusing on the referee after we lost, evidenced by the fact that no player or member of the technical staff protested against the refereeing during the period when we were ahead.'

He concluded: 'The main reason for the loss was never the referee, but rather the physical and mental decline in the final minutes, resulting in three consecutive goals.'