By Mark Gleeson
ATLANTA, July 7 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi inspired Argentina to a remarkable World Cup comeback as they came from two goals down to beat Egypt 3-2 in a dramatic last-16 game on Tuesday.
The holders were 11 minutes from a shock defeat trailing 2-0, but goals from Cristian Romero, Messi and the winner two minutes into stoppage time from Enzo Fernandez kept them in the competition.
Egypt had been on the brink of one of the great World Cup upsets after goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa
Zico. Messi had squandered an early penalty.
The Africans fell apart in the closing stages, however, as Argentina's captain inspired his side in a dramatic turnaround.
The 39-year-old, whose record World Cup goal haul is now up to 21, was again central to his country’s hopes and constantly probing for an opportunity but found his efforts stymied by determined defending until near the end of another thrilling match at the tournament.
Messi, who was in floods of tears at the end, provided the cross from which Romero headed home to start the comeback.
Four minutes later, Messi crashed home the equaliser after substitutes Lautaro Martinez and Gonzalo Montiel had both got touches to keep the ball away from Egyptian defenders.
COUNTER-ATTACK WINNER
The winner came from a counter-attack as Lautaro Martinez crossed from the right and Fernandez cushioned a back-post header past goalkeeper Mostafa Shoubir, who had done much earlier to keep his team in the game.
Egypt felt they deserved a penalty before the breakaway and vociferously complained but to no avail.
The North Africans were surprisingly attacking in the early stages, bucking their recent tendency of sitting back and looking for counter-attack opportunities, and they opened the scoring after 15 minutes.
Emam Ashour attempted to tease his way past the Argentine defence on the right flank but, seeing no way through, passed back to Marwan Attia, who floated in a long cross that Ibrahim rose to easily head home.
The lead should have only lasted four minutes as Haissem Hassan caught overlapping Argentine fullback Nicolas Tagliafico with a late tackle to give away a penalty.
But it only served to mark the start of the goalkeeping heroics of Shoubir, whose dive to the left easily stopped a left-footed effort from Messi that was too close to the keeper.
Messi became the first player to miss two penalties at a World Cup after also failing from the spot against Austria in the group phase.
MIRACULOUS SAVES FROM EGYPT GOALKEEPER
Shoubir made a reflex stop to deny a point-blank header from Alexis Mac Allister in the 28th minute, and pulled off an even more extraordinary save six minutes from halftime to stop Julian Alvarez’s shot, stretching to turn the ball around the post.
In between, Messi crashed a free kick against the post.
Egypt had the ball in the net in the 62nd minute but Zico’s finish, after a sweeping move with Hassan’s trickery and Mohamed Salah’s pass, was chalked off after a VAR review found that Attia had fouled Lisandro Martinez in the build-up.
But five minutes later, they swept further into the lead in similar circumstances. Salah swept the ball forward on the counter, Hassan took it to the byline, and Zico came storming in to finish the cutback pass.
But once Egypt began to sit back, they invited Messi to perform his heroics and paid a heavy price.
Argentina advanced to a Saturday quarter-final in Kansas City against the winners of the later game on Tuesday between Colombia and Switzerland in Vancouver.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing byy Ed Osmond)
