2026 World Cup: Argentina deserved to beat Egypt, now a tricky Switzerland test awaits

Ahead of Argentina's 2026 World Cup quarter-final against Switzerland, Sports Mole's Site Coordinator Ben Knapton discusses the South American nation, who beat Egypt 3-2 in the last-16 stage of the tournament in dramatic fashion.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: "Egypt bottled a two-goal lead"

What an absolute crazy, chaotic spectacle. For 70 minutes it was just lackadaisical from a team perspective for Argentina. 

Egypt were pressing the life out of them for a lot of that early period and looked like they wanted it more. It took the second goal to really kick Argentina into life. 

For Egypt's disallowed goal, for the foul on Martinez, that was the correct decision for me: a clear foul. I know it's maybe not the most popular view among the neutrals, but I'm not a trained referee. 

I read Graham Scott's column on it earlier and he disagreed with the decision. He thought it was the attacking phase of play, but it's all subjective as to how far back you can go. 

For me, the main issue stems not from the VAR call but from the referee not blowing at the actual time of the incident. Referees aren't blowing for things on the field as much because they think the VAR room will come to the correct decision. 

There's a fear of making those decisions on the pitch, thinking it's going to be reviewed 100 times in slow motion. But we've seen so many times across the Premier League and World Cup that that is not the case. 

I was listening to Ally McCoist on commentary and he was just going on about the shirt pull, completely missing the fact that Martinez's foot was trodden on. 

There was a similar incident between Chelsea and Fulham last season: a Rodrigo Muniz goal ruled out for a slight tread on the toe of Trevoh Chalobah. 

He stepped on his foot, that's going to be painful, and for me that is a foul. So that was the right decision, and it's entirely subjective as to where the attacking phase of play starts. 

There's going to be no definitive answer the way there is with offsides. There was that incident towards the end with Julian Alvarez on Mo Salah, that tackle inside the penalty area. 

Looking at it in slow motion, I don't think it was a penalty: it looks like both of their feet came together at the same time. There was mutual contact there. 

I dislike how many of those soft penalties are given these days just because there is contact in the area. 

Egypt bottled a two-goal lead and will be furious and frustrated, but their frustrations are born out of throwing away that lead. 

Also, when Zico scored his disallowed goal, he took his shirt off and should've been yellow carded: even if the goal was disallowed, he should've been booked for that. 

So Egypt also got away with something, and Argentina were not just the complete victims in that game. I had no qualm at all with the refereeing.