Argentina’s captain, Lionel Messi, has explained that his tears after Tuesday’s World Cup comeback win over Egypt were due to guilt over a missed penalty, rather than pure joy at reaching the quarterfinals.
Argentina rallied from two goals behind to defeat Egypt 3-2 in Atlanta, with Messi missing a first-half penalty before setting up Cristian Romero’s goal, scoring the equalizer himself, and seeing Enzo Fernandez complete the comeback late in stoppage time.
Messi admitted that the missed spot kick hung on him throughout the game.
“I cried because I felt that I let my teammates down because of the penalty I missed… and the way I took it.
“But thankfully once again, God had something special for me in the end. I’m very happy,” Messi said.
He stated that the team’s refusal to accept elimination carried them through.
“We didn’t want and didn’t deserve to go home; we could not let it end like that.
“This group really deserved to keep going. We never give up at all. Never,” he stated.
Mostafa Shobeir, Egypt’s goalie, saved Messi’s penalty in the 20th minute, just after Yasser Ibrahim put Egypt ahead.
Egypt doubled their advantage with Mostafa Zico until Messi flipped the game on its head, setting up Romero and then scoring himself in the 83rd minute to tie Argentina before Fernandez scored the winner.
Messi’s equalizer was his eighth goal of the tournament, propelling him back to the top of the Golden Boot rankings ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland and extending his record of six consecutive World Cup knockout games.
Messi was overtaken with emotion at the last whistle of what is largely expected to be his final World Cup game. Argentina will play Switzerland in the quarterfinals on July 11 in Kansas City.
