The elimination of Egypt and Morocco from the 2026 World Cup was accompanied by major controversy over refereeing errors in the two teams' matches against Argentina and France, increasing pressure on FIFA regarding the level of referees in the tournament and the need to investigate some decisions made during the knockout stage matches in favor of the big teams.

Although the Moroccan street did not dwell long on the Argentine referee's decision to award France's first goal, considering that the Atlas Lions did not provide enough to warrant advancing to the semifinals, the scene in Egypt was completely different. The sports community sympathized with coach Hossam Hassan's refusal to acknowledge defeat against Argentina and his statements attacking FIFA, accusing the referee of robbing the Pharaohs of superiority in the decisive match and deliberately giving Argentina an undeserved win as a favor to their star Lionel Messi.

Hossam Hassan's angry statements came after the referee refused to award a penalty to Egypt before Argentina scored the winning goal. Apart from the coach's view on the last play of the match, his excessive reaction and statements may have been directed more at the sports community to absorb potential public anger over the team's sudden and unjustified collapse after conceding three goals in 11 minutes, especially since the Egyptian team had shown defensive solidity throughout their World Cup matches, confirming it was difficult to break them down so easily and take away the result, had it not been for the coach's poor management of the last ten minutes of the fierce encounter.

Hossam Hassan's intelligence and success in diverting attention from his failure to maintain the win led the Egyptian street to rally behind him in the belief that the Pharaohs were the better team in the match, although the match statistics contradict what the coach said about his team's superiority. Argentina dominated possession with 64%, took 19 shots compared to Egypt's 5, and made 541 accurate passes against 287 for the Pharaohs. This is enough to indicate that Hossam Hassan squandered a valuable win that could have been achieved, especially since Algeria outperformed Argentina in these statistics but failed to win, because the striped team (Argentina) could decide matches with their experience, something Hossam Hassan missed.

The tears of Messi and his teammates after they managed to equalize and win prove that the match almost slipped away after they fell behind by two goals, had it not been for the Egyptian coach celebrating prematurely internally and forgetting that Argentina could come back whenever they found an opportunity. Regardless, the heroic performance of the Egyptian players in the match limited Argentina's superiority and overcame the impact of injuries on the team, but it was not enough in the absence of an effective role for the coach in preserving the result.

Overall, Egypt's participation in the World Cup was better than their previous one, but it is not the best ever compared to the strong showing of the 1990 team against Netherlands, England, and Ireland. What Mahmoud El-Gohary did in that World Cup cannot be compared to what Hossam Hassan offered in the 2026 edition, even if the latter reached the round of 16, considering that facing New Zealand, Iran, and Australia is far less difficult than dealing with Europe's giants. Perhaps the draw against Belgium was the most important challenge Hossam Hassan succeeded in during the tournament.

Away from the angry reaction following the elimination of Egypt and Morocco, the coach of the Atlas Lions, Mohamed Wahbi, appeared realistic when he acknowledged defeat and France's superiority over his team, asserting that the future belongs to his players, without dwelling on the Argentine referee's mistakes. In contrast, Hossam Hassan exaggerated in his statements by belittling the opposing team and blaming the referee for his team's loss and squandering a certain victory that no experienced coach would let slip.

*From Asharq Al-Awsat London

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