ATLANTA, July 8: For Mohamed Salah and Egypt, what could have been a glorious celebration turned ugly at the end.
On the cusp of upsetting the defending World Cup champion, the Pharaohs squandered a two-goal lead late in the game and fell to Lionel Messi and Argentina.
The winning goal came two minutes into stoppage time and set off a wild scene in front of the Egyptian bench. A red card was shown to goalkeeping coach Saafan Elsaghir, who had to be physically restrained from going after French referee Francois Letexier.
Multiple yellow cards were doled out to those griping vehemently about Argentina’s final goal.
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan held up both arms in an “X” shape — the signal in football for calling out racial abuse — and stated flatly that his upstart squad was victimised by a football establishment that wanted Messi and Argentina to advance to the quarterfinals in their pursuit of a second straight title.
“We have been treated unfairly today,” Hassan said. “We have suffered injustice.”
In a tournament already marred by allegations that US President Donald Trump influenced FIFA to overturn a one-game suspension for an American player, Egypt turned up the heat on football’s governing body.
“I just would like to say that we would have deserved to earn this win,” Hassan said, “but we are leaving with honour, with pride, regardless of this defeat.”
Hassan, who has been outspoken in his support of the Palestinians during the tournament, was upset that a potential second goal was overturned by a video review that showed a foul by Egypt at the start of an end-to-end play.
Hassan was still seething that the video assistant referee didn’t feel a need for Letexier to review what Egypt felt was a foul on Salah in the area, denying what could’ve been a penalty kick in the waning minutes.
“The effect of this outcome goes way beyond the defeat itself because we haven’t seen neither respect nor fair play,” Hassan said.
“There has not been respect or fair play because a penalty was ruled out. A second ball that should have been called as a penalty for us was not even checked by the VAR.”
“What I told the referee was just that this is unfair,” the coach said.
“I was saying maybe he’s carrying a scar, maybe he has something to hide. Whoever has something to hide sometimes fails to hide what he is hiding and this was exactly what I felt during that conversation.” (AP)
