The 2026 World Cup continues to serve up entertainment in spades — unless you’re a USMNT fan of course — as it somehow keeps topping itself with historic instant classics. Just when you thought it couldn’t get much better than Argentina’s 3-2 win over heroic Cape Verde, or England’s 3-2 win over Mexico at the Azteca, here come Argentina again, overturning a two-goal deficit in the final ten minutes and change to win, 3-2 and advance to the quarterfinals at Egypt’s expense.
It’s the biggest, latest
comeback in World Cup history.
The defending champions did get lucky a few times, including an Egypt goal ruled out for a foul at the other end of the pitch and two penalty shouts going completely ignored in the final minutes. Also ignored in those frantic closing minutes was the Egypt head coach’s signal that’s supposed to draw attention to racial abuse.
That was perhaps the final insult to a game that Egypt seemed to be well in control of, having taken the lead early on, and then sat back and countered for the rest of the game — eventually getting the second goal halfway through the second half that stunned the arena, and seemed to be the decider. As it turned out, it was just the starter that Argentina needed.
Messi, who had failed to convert a penalty yet again earlier in the game, set up one, then scored a blockbuster second in the space of four minutes, but Argentina did not want to settle for extra-time. And in the 92nd minute, Enzo peeled off the back of a defender at the far post and lofted a header back across goal and into the top corner. Cue pandemonium.
The winners of Switzerland v. Colombia will meet Argentina in the quarterfinal on Saturday.
