Argentina have staged a stunning comeback from 2-0 down in first 78 minutes to avoid a stunning exit at the hands of Egypt and prolong Lionel Messi’s World Cup career with a 3-2 win to reach the quarter-finals.
The holders looked down and out on Tuesday when goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko, either side of Messi having a penalty saved, put the Pharaohs in sight of a historic victory in Atlanta.
However, Cristian Romero’s header sparked the comeback as Argentina struck three times in the final 11 minutes plus stoppage time.
Messi smashed home the equaliser to score for a ninth consecutive World Cup game and retake the lead for the Golden Boot with eight this tournament.
Enzo Fernandez completed the turnaround with a superb header two minutes into stoppage time.
At the end, Messi shed tears of joy as he embraced his teammates.
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Egypt were left furious after a number of controversial calls went against them, including a disallowed goal early in the second half, and a member of their coaching staff was red-carded in the aftermath of the winning goal.
But despite a second almighty scare against African opposition, Argentina will face either Colombia or Switzerland in the last eight on Saturday.
Lionel Scaloni attempted to refresh a side that looked dead on their feet in the closing stages of a 3-2 win over Cape Verde in the last 32 on Friday.
Nicolas Tagliafico, Leandro Paredes and Julian Alvarez came in from the team that started in Miami, but Argentina got off to another slow start.
Marwan Attia’s deep cross to the back post was powered home by Yasser.
Argentina had the chance to level five minutes later when Tagliafico was wiped out by Haissem Hassan inside the box.
However, there was another chapter to Messi’s misery from the penalty spot at World Cups.
The eight-time Ballon d’Or’s strike was tentative and Mostafa Shobeir flew to his left to save, meaning Messi has now missed four of his eight non-shootout penalties at World Cups.
He also became the first player to miss two in a single tournament, having also failed to hit the target against Austria in the group stages.
