Egypt national team player Yasser Ibrahim believes he made a mistake by playing into the offside trap during Argentina's first goal against Egypt.
Yasser Ibrahim
Club: Al Ahly
Egypt bid farewell to the 2026 World Cup from the round of 16 after losing to Argentina by three goals to two.
Ibrahim said on MBC Egypt 2 channel: "I still can't get over the Argentina match, because the dream was lost in 10 minutes; we suffered from bad luck."
He continued, "We delivered a great tournament, and if you ask any player, they would say we weren't going as mere guests of honor."
He went on, "In my altercation with Messi at the Club World Cup, he came towards me. The altercation happened because Marwan Attia fell to the ground injured and I asked them to put the ball out to treat him, but they were about to score a goal. I went to Messi and told him he is a big player and should put the ball out and play cleanly, but he tried to provoke me and kept laughing, so I tried to provoke him too."
He affirmed, "In the Argentina match, I wanted to win and didn't care who the opponent was, whether Messi or Ronaldo or anyone else, and I play any match with this goal, whether with Al Ahly or the Egypt national team."
He added, "After the goal I scored, I was running and didn't know where to go from happiness. I knew Marwan Attia would send the cross to that spot because he had sent it to me several times, and Hossam Hassan always tries to apply that play."
He stressed, "After the referee decided to review the goal, I knew he would disallow it. After scoring the second goal that the referee would count, he greatly favored us. There are small details from the referees that make teams control the match without it appearing to people as the reason. The Argentina national team committed more fouls than us and didn't receive any warning. In contrast, a player like Hamdy Fathy, when he told him his shirt was torn, he showed him a yellow card."
He revealed, "After scoring the second goal, I told Marwan Attia that there was still a lot of time and the match wasn't over yet."
He continued, "What happened in the first goal was bad luck, and I shouldn't have played on the offside, but you make the decision in a moment and I thought he was in an offside position."
He added, "We felt great frustration after the second goal, but we said the match wasn't over because there was extra time and our physical fitness would help us with that."
He went on, "We attacked after the equalizer because we felt the match was stolen from us despite our superiority throughout all its minutes, and therefore we wanted to advance again, even though we were facing the world champions."
He completed, "I left Enzo Fernández for a moment because there was another player entering the penalty area and I hesitated to go towards either of them, but Lautaro sent a perfectly measured cross towards Enzo and it was very difficult."
He added, "I asked Salah to talk to the referee because he deserved a penalty, and Hamdy Fathy also deserved another in the same attack, but the referee refused to talk to any player and insisted on his decision."
He concluded, "The word injustice is big, but we were indeed wronged against Argentina; perhaps we fell short a little, but we were also wronged."
Egypt reached the round of 16 of the World Cup for the first time in its history.
