This was supposed to be the day the reigning champs went home. Egypt got goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Zico to go up 2-0, and Lionel Messi had already missed a first-half penalty, saved by Mostafa Shobeir. Argentina looked cooked. Then, somewhere around the 79th minute, the whole match flipped upside down.
The final whistle footage: Argentina mobbing each other after completing the 2-0 comeback to win 3-2 and book a quarterfinal date with Switzerland.
Messi set up Cristian Romero's headed equalizer, then buried one himself to make it 2-2, erasing his own penalty miss from the conversation entirely. The knockout blow came in stoppage time, when Enzo Fernandez rose for a header off a late counter to complete the turnaround and send Egypt out of the tournament. Three goals, 15 minutes, one of the great World Cup comebacks in recent memory.
Dave Portnoy reached for the highest praise he had in the moment, comparing the flip to the Patriots dynasty teams that would sit on a game before flooring the accelerator when it mattered.
Unbelievable. Argentina just flicked a switch. True greatness. Its gotta remind so many people of the great New England Patriot teams during the dynasty run. Just toying with opponents until it was time to go Greatness recognizes greatness #argentina
The Messi discourse online split into two lanes: the guys mocking his penalty conversion rate, and the guys pointing out he just single-handedly authored a comeback anyway. Portnoy took the second lane and swung hard at anyone suggesting Messi's 78% career PK rate makes him ordinary from the spot, calling out doubters directly. It's a fair gripe about an otherwise perfect résumé, but nobody was bringing it up once the final whistle blew.
Messi in full flight during the celebration, the kind of moment that gets clipped and replayed for years.
Messi is now his tournament's leading scorer, and Argentina moves on to face Switzerland in the quarterfinals looking every bit like a team defending its title with something to prove. Barstool's own soccer guy Zah caught heat from Portnoy for even suggesting Ronaldo belongs in the same sentence as Messi this week, and results like this one aren't going to help his case.
Not everyone online was strictly serious about it. KFC floated the kind of half-joking conspiracy theory that pops up every time a big program survives a knockout game they had no business winning.
This is kinda insane no? Every ref is Argentinian?? Particularly for a sport where ppl are known to stoop to all levels of inappropriate behavior to support their team/country
Egypt's players earned genuine respect for pushing the two-time-in-a-row favorites to the brink, even if the finish will sting for a while. For Argentina, the story is now Switzerland, a quarterfinal, and a Messi who keeps finding new ways to remind everyone why the trophy chase runs through him.