Published 07/07/2026
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Last update: 23:56 (Mecca time)
Some refereeing decisions in the 2026 World Cup quarter-final match between Egypt and Argentina caused controversy, especially the disallowance of a goal scored by Mostafa Zico early in the second half.
Argentina overcame a two-goal deficit to claim a thrilling 3-2 win over their Egyptian counterparts at Atlanta Stadium on Tuesday, continuing their campaign to defend their title won in Qatar in 2022.
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Mostafa Zico scored for Egypt in the 58th minute to extend the Pharaohs’ lead, but it was disallowed by French referee Francois Letixier after reverting to video technology (VAR) due to Marwan Attia’s error on Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez early on.
Wrong decision
Former Spanish referee and Radio Marca referee analyst Eduardo Burol believes referee Leutixier’s decision to disallow Egypt’s second goal was wrong, given that the foul awarded to defender Martinez had no impact on the attack.
Burul said: “Returning to the start of the attack to cancel the goal is not justified. Such violations do not have a sufficient impact on the goal being scored.”
He added: “The Egyptian player ran the ball a long distance, so returning to a long kick and only giving a foul for stepping on a defender’s foot with a slow replay is inconsistent with the nature of the game.”
The former referee questioned the validity of the video technology’s intervention, stressing that the shot did not rise to the level of a “clear and obvious error” requiring the intervention of a video assistant referee.
He continued: “Had the referee called the foul on the pitch the decision would have been acceptable, but once he has allowed play to continue I see no reason to go back and disallow the goal.”
Former Spanish referee Iturralde Gonzalez agreed with Burol, stressing that the infringement was incorrect and represented nothing more than a very minor step, and according to the philosophy of video technology (VAR), it did not deserve to be reviewed, but should have been left to the discretion of the arena referee.
He added: “The biggest problem is that the laws of the game have always been the same throughout the world, but since the introduction of video technology, their use has varied from one tournament to another, without a single standard, which has confused players and fans due to the difference in the mechanism of its application between competitions.”
Foul before Fernandes’ goal
Argentina’s winning goal, scored by Enzo Fernandez in stoppage time, was also in some doubt due to a foul committed on Mohamed Salah before the ball reached Lautaro Martinez, who provided Enzo’s assist.
Former Argentina star Claudio Lopez said: “Salah was interfered with and the referee had to go back to the video equipment to check the kick.”
In his beIN Sports analysis of the match, he added: “The ball was behind Salah and Martinez, who blocked it, had the ball in front of him. The referee should have gone back to the video equipment.”
Criticism of the myth of England
In turn, English football legend Ian Wright believed that Fernandes’ goal should have been disallowed due to a foul on Mohamed Salah at the start of the attack.
Wright said during ITV Sport’s analysis of the match: “That’s what’s happening now with video technology as they review previous footage. If you’re going to go back to Argentina’s goal being disallowed for a foul on the edge of the penalty area, you’ve also got to go back to that footage of Mohamed Salah.”
He added: “He took contact and it may have been minor, but he was fouled and then the attack went in a different direction.”