Atlanta did not merely stage a World Cup knockout match. It staged a trial by noise, heat, suspicion and late Argentine theatre.

Argentina’s 3-2 comeback win over Egypt had everything a classic needs: a two-goal deficit, a desperate champion, Lionel Messi refusing to let the story end, and Enzo Fernandez arriving in stoppage time to complete the escape. But this Round of 16 tie will be remembered as much for Egypt’s rage as for Argentina’s rescue.

By full-time, Egypt were not just beaten. They felt wronged. The technical area had turned into a second battlefield, the referee was surrounded by questions, and Egyptian players and staff left convinced that the world champions had been helped through.

Mostafa Ziko, one of Egypt’s goalscorers, put that anger in its most explosive form.

“It was the referee. The cup is directed towards Argentina,” he said.

That sentence turned a breathless comeback into something larger: a debate about VAR, fairness, Messi’s global pull and whether football’s biggest stars are allowed to survive nights that might have buried others.

A classic comeback drowned by controversy

On paper, Argentina’s win looked like the sort of result champions produce. They trailed 2-0, absorbed the shock, found a way back, and struck the decisive blow in stoppage time. Cristian Romero began the recovery, Messi equalised, and Fernandez finished it.

But this was not clean champion theatre. It was messy, disputed and furious.

Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan said his team had been denied justice. He claimed Egypt should have had a second goal when leading 1-0, only for Ziko’s 67th-minute effort to be disallowed after a VAR review. He also argued Egypt should have been awarded a stoppage-time penalty for an incident involving Mohamed Salah shortly before Argentina broke away and scored the winner.

The sequence made the defeat feel unbearable for Egypt. A goal ruled out. A late penalty appeal ignored. A winner conceded almost immediately after. Then cards shown to the Egyptian bench as protests boiled over.

This was the chaos of Atlanta: Egypt crying foul, Argentina escaping, and Messi’s World Cup still alive.

Egypt’s anger: ‘There’s no justice in this competition’

Hassan’s post-match reaction was not a routine complaint about marginal calls. It was a full denunciation of the match’s direction.

“We haven’t seen respect or fair play,” he said, pointing towards referee Francois Letexier and Argentina’s players.

Hassan accused Argentina of pressuring the referee and suggested that pressure influenced the outcome. To him, the disputed decisions did not feel isolated. The disallowed goal, the late penalty appeal, the stoppage-time winner and the cards to his bench became part of one larger grievance.

“Life is unfair. The world is unfair. OK, but why isn’t there any fairness in sports?” Hassan said.

Later, he went further. “Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition? Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running?” he said.

Scott said the decision to rule out Egypt’s goal was incorrect because Attia’s challenge on Lisandro Martinez in the build-up was “normal contact” rather than a foul. The incident had also taken place nearly 100 yards from Argentina’s goal, giving the world champions enough time and bodies to regroup defensively.

In Scott’s view, VAR had gone too far by returning to a marginal incident so early in the move. He described the intervention as a “massive overreach” of a system meant to correct only “clear and obvious errors”.

The former referee noted that although there was slight foot-on-foot contact and a brief shirt pull, neither action was serious enough to cancel a goal after such a long attacking sequence.

That distinction made Egypt’s grievance more layered: the disallowed goal appeared to be a major VAR mistake, but the stoppage-time penalty claim was far less convincing. 

Why the VAR call hurt Egypt so deeply

  Some decisions wound teams more than others. A tight offside is painful, but objective. A handball in the box can be disputed, but at least it is close to the scoring action. Egypt’s frustration came from the feeling that VAR had reached too far back into the move.

The disallowed goal was not caused by an obvious foul in the penalty area. It did not come after a clear push before the finish. It came after a challenge far away from the eventual shot, in a phase from which Argentina still had time to defend.

For Egypt, this was the moment the match changed shape.

Salah penalty appeal: Egypt’s weaker case

  If Egypt had a strong argument over the disallowed goal, their late penalty appeal was less convincing.

Hassan insisted Salah should have been awarded a penalty shortly before Fernandez’s winner. Egypt saw contact and demanded intervention. In the heat of the moment, the non-call felt like another injustice in a match they believed had already turned against them.

But not every appeal carries the same weight. The contact on Salah appeared minor, and the claim did not look strong enough to demand a VAR overturn.  However, former referee Scott did not support this Egypt’s complaints. He said the late penalty appeal involving Mohamed Salah, shortly before Enzo Fernandez’s winner, was rightly dismissed. There was contact on Salah’s boot, but not enough, in his assessment, to award a penalty.

That does not erase Egypt’s anger. It does, however, show why this match will be debated in layers rather than reduced to one call.

Why Egypt’s bench was shown cards

The late drama also raised another question for many watching: can support staff receive yellow and red cards?

Yes, they can.

Football’s Laws of the Game allow referees to caution or dismiss team officials for misconduct. This includes not only the head coach but also assistant coaches, goalkeeping coaches, fitness trainers, analysts, doctors, physiotherapists and other accredited members of the technical area.

The rule exists because the modern bench is no longer passive. Coaches and staff constantly instruct players, challenge decisions, speak to substitutes and place pressure on the fourth official. When that behaviour crosses the line, referees can use cards to discipline them.

A yellow card can be shown for dissent, repeatedly leaving the technical area, delaying restarts, sarcastic gestures, provoking opponents or ignoring instructions from officials. A red card can be shown for offensive or abusive language, threatening behaviour, confronting match officials, entering the field to interfere with play, throwing objects or violent conduct.

In Atlanta, the rule became part of the spectacle because Egypt’s anger was no longer limited to the players. The bench itself had become a participant in the storm.

Touchline fury becomes part of the match

As Egypt protested Fernandez’s stoppage-time winner and the earlier non-call on Salah, Letexier showed a red card to a member of Egypt’s coaching staff. Hassan was cautioned. Goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir was also shown a yellow card.

For Egypt, those cards felt like punishment for outrage. For the referee, they were a response to a technical area that had boiled over.

The truth is that both things can coexist. Egypt’s anger had context, especially after the disallowed Ziko goal. But referees are also expected to control the bench once protests become persistent, aggressive or disruptive.

Hassan’s scheduling complaint adds another layer

Hassan’s frustration did not stop with VAR or refereeing. He also criticised the timing of the match.

“Whoever schedules these matches is someone who has never played football. You never schedule a football match at 12 noon,” he said.

That complaint widened Egypt’s grievance. Hassan was not only arguing that decisions went against his team. He was arguing that the conditions of the match were wrong too.

To him, the scheduling, the VAR call, the late penalty appeal and the touchline punishments became part of a broader unfairness. Whether everyone accepts that framing is another matter, but it explains why Egypt’s reaction after the match was so fierce.

Hassan did not see one bad decision. He saw a night tilted away from his team.

Messi’s shadow over every decision

No Argentina World Cup match exists outside Lionel Messi’s orbit.

That is what made Hassan’s comments so pointed. When he asked whether there was a desire to keep Messi in the tournament, he touched a nerve that often follows global icons. The bigger the player, the louder the suspicion when close calls appear to benefit his team.

Egypt will see it differently. For them, Messi’s presence made the night feel more loaded. When football’s most marketable figure survives a scare through a disputed comeback, suspicion comes easily to the defeated side.

That does not prove Egypt’s strongest claims. But it explains why the defeat felt larger than a football match.

Messi’s magic, in this case, arrived wrapped in controversy.

Argentina’s escape: Character or fortune?

Argentina will not apologise for surviving.

World Cup knockout football rarely rewards purity. It rewards nerve, endurance and decisive moments. Argentina were in danger, but they did not collapse. They dragged themselves back into the contest and struck late.

That is the version they will carry forward: the world champions passed through fire and lived.

But Atlanta also exposed them. A side that falls 2-0 behind in a Round of 16 match has been vulnerable.  

Argentina’s aura remains, but it is no longer spotless.

Their quarter-final opponents will have seen both sides: the fragility that let Egypt dream, and the champion instinct that crushed that dream in the final minutes.

Egypt’s exit will not fade quickly

Ziko’s immediate reaction captured the emotional wreckage.

“We are so sorry,” he said to the people of Egypt. “We wanted to make you all happy.”

Then came the accusation that will follow this match.

“The cup is directed towards Argentina.”

Those words will be debated, dismissed, amplified and replayed. For Egypt, they will become shorthand for a night when a historic opportunity seemed within reach and then disappeared in a blur of VAR, protests and late Argentine punishment.

Hassan’s declaration that he would “never watch the World Cup again” may have come from the rawness of defeat, but it revealed how deeply the match had cut.

Egypt did not leave Atlanta feeling they had lost only to Argentina. They left feeling beaten by the event itself.

Manchester City have pitted Gianluigi Donnarumma and James Trafford against each other but the club will be weaker without the competition

There was amusement at Manchester City after the Carabao Cup final at how much emphasis had been put on Arsenal picking their second-choice goalkeeper as the reason for the defeat. Many making the point failed to acknowledge that James Trafford was not a regular starter for the Blues.

When the teams played each other a month later in a pivotal Premier League battle, not even a howler from City’s No.1 could stop them from beating Arsenal again despite the Gunners having David Raya in net for this one. Gianluigi Donnarumma atoned for his first-half error with a big second half to see City beat their biggest rivals again.

City may not have had enough to best Arsenal over 38 Premier League games but they did have a better goalkeeping department for all competitions. As they should have done, given Trafford was good enough to be a No.1 before Donnarumma was signed on the final day of the transfer window.

It may not have been an easy situation to deal with, particularly for Trafford, yet it gave City immense confidence for any competition. Trafford was excellent in the cups when he came in, giving considerable strength to sides that usually featured plenty of rotation that really did make a difference against good opposition.

The debate between City fans over which goalkeeper they prefer can have some pretty strong opinions, but the quality of both means that the competition was always going to be short-lived. The Blues arguably boast the strongest pair of goalkeepers they have ever had, yet it is because of that that it cannot last.

Trafford is expected to make a decision over his future after the World Cup finishes and the former Burnley stopper has spoken this summer of the importance of playing every week in order to challenge for an England shirt. Enzo Maresca’s arrival at the Etihad has some Trafford supporters dreaming that he could oust Donnarumma, but regardless it feels impossible that City will carry on with both keepers again this season.

A bit like an Erling Haaland back-up, finding a No.2 that is capable of being a No.1 but is happy not to be is a difficult role to fill and one where regular replacements are needed. City have been aware for some time that they will need to be active this summer, yet that does not make the task of finding such a specialist any easier.

Pierce Charles looks set to sign from Sheffield Wednesday to bolster the ranks, although City will need to find someone with much more experience as a No.2 to avoid making their task more difficult in the cup competitions. A new goalkeeper may not feel like City’s priority in the transfer window, but it could decide how far they go in defending the two trophies they won last season.

Coco Gauff reached her first Wimbledon semi-final after coming from a set down to defeat fellow American Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Centre Court.

The victory sends Gauff into the Wimbledon last four for the first time and marks her sixth Grand Slam semi-final overall.

After the match, Gauff said she felt safe in Centre Court.

“After seven years of playing this tournament, it’s finally the first time I can walk on this Centre Court and I didn’t feel nervous.”

She then joked that the feeling might simply come with experience.

“I don’t know if I’m becoming a vet or…”

Gauff admitted reaching the semi-finals felt special, especially considering her recent struggles on grass.

“Honestly, pretty insane. Considering I hadn’t won a match on grass in two years before this tournament, I’m definitely just really happy with how I played today.”

She also praised Pegula after their all-American quarter-final.

“Jess is an incredible opponent and person. Playing against her is never easy. I’m just happy to get through this one today.”

The win was Gauff’s 31st victory of the 2026 season and her 36th career win over a top-10 opponent.

After years of trying to make a breakthrough at Wimbledon, Gauff has now reached the semi-finals for the first time and will have the chance to continue her best run yet at the All England Club.

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — This week’s Scottish Open will be different, we can promise you that. For starters, LIV golfers Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are playing. That’s different. Former LIV player Brooks Koepka is competing as a sponsor’s exemption … out of necessity … on the DP World Tour half of the field. That’s different. And yet, one piece of newness simmers in the background, made with fans in mind. 

The holes at Renaissance Club have been shifted around. And in a not-so-subtle way aimed at creating the most compelling product possible from an unchanged golf course. 

Normally, a rerouting of holes may not do much for excitement, particularly for the American crowd across the Atlantic Ocean. Often a rerouting is made out of necessity for a course renovation. But this one is simply to maximize the setting for fans on-site and construe the most excitement for a TV audience. 

In short, a majority of the old back nine at Renaissance — holes 10 thru 16 — will now play as holes 1 thru 7, while holes 1 thru 7 at Renaissance will now operate as holes 10 thru 16. To the Renaissance newbie, that won’t mean much. But to players in the field, it means a final stretch of six holes with zero par-5s, which Rahm was quick to point out Tuesday morning. 

“Haven’t given me a reason yet as to why they changed it,” Rahm said, before doing the tournament’s bidding. 

“Also think it’s quite a thrilling finish,” Rahm continued. “Obviously you don’t have the par-5 on 16, that gave quite a bit away, but with the right wind you have a possibly reachable par-4, a very tricky short par-3, a long par-4, and then 17 and 18. I still think it gives it a good variety and a very exciting finish. I think it could be a really good change.”

He’s not alone. Viktor Hovland was next on stage Tuesday and said he really liked it, and expected it to contribute to a more-exciting finish than the Renaissance of old. 

The previous 16th hole was a downhill par-5 that offered players a bit of a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card late in their back nine. Here’s an easy birdie in the heat of contention. Now that gettable hole arrives well before players make the turn, and the holes spent in contention suddenly aggregate into a wicked route to the clubhouse. 

The new 14th is a drivable par-4 with the right wind, as Rahm said. But if that hole plays downwind, the next hole — a short, tasty par-3 — reveals itself at No. 15, surrounded by bunkers and, now, also encircled by stadium seating. The event has increased the buildout around this hole in years past —adding grandstands, viewing platforms and what amounted to an outdoor food court — but it was always played as the 6th, much too early in the weekend rounds to hold significance. Now, it’ll be where pros hold on for dear life, make a run or stumble when they can least afford it. 

After the 15th comes a long par-4 — which plays as a par-5 for members of the exclusive club — followed by another difficult par-3 (203 yards) and finishing par-4 (483 yards) that often plays into the wind. Rory McIlroy birdied both finishing holes when he came back to win in 2023, a herculean feat considering it took him driver, 2-iron to reach the 18th green. 

And despite McIlroy’s heroics from three years ago, there will be bogeys down the stretch. You can count on it. But more than anything, spectators will be wooed into hanging around the clubhouse with this new finishing stretch. The routing’s proximity to the clubhouse and grandstands should create a more electric scene come Sunday, and should increase the chances of capturing an epic crowd reaction, too, which can seem muted on TV during those windy links days of a Scottish summer. 

All of it outlines a creative strategy that one event is taking to make itself 1, 2 or 3% better each season. Now all organizers need are the best golfers to show up and do their thing. 

Dwight Ramos (with ball) knows how tough it will be moving forward. —FIBA.COM

The path towards a fourth consecutive trip to the Fiba World Cup could be a narrow one for Gilas Pilipinas as it now enters the second round of qualification where it will need to stand tall against three Middle East opponents.

Gilas will need to play with a sense of urgency for the rest of the Asian Qualifiers after ending the first round with a 2-4 record after Monday’s 92-49 road loss to unbeaten Australia in Perth where the Filipinos played without Justin Brownlee.

“If we move on, there’s going to be a lot of teams that are just as good as Australia,” Gilas fan favorite Dwight Ramos said, referring to how playing in the main draw of the World Cup will be if Gilas does advance to the 2027 edition in Doha.

Australia topped Group A carrying an unbeaten 6-0 record, while New Zealand was second at 4-2, followed by the Philippines and Guam, which was eliminated from World Cup qualifying after losing all six matches.

Must-win games

Gilas joins the Boomers and Tall Blacks in the newly-formed Group E where they’ll be accompanied by Group C teams Iran, Jordan and Syria. Iran and Jordan each went 5-1 while Syria posted a 2-4 slate in the first round.

That has put Gilas in a difficult situation going into the next three windows where all games are now considered must-wins with the records from the initial phase of the Qualifiers carried over into the second round.

The top three teams after the second round will qualify for next year’s World Cup, while the fourth-placer may advance if it has a better record or a tiebreaker advantage over its counterpart in Group F.

Group F is composed of Lebanon (5-1), Japan (4-2), Qatar (3-3), South Korea (3-3), China (3-3) and Saudi Arabia (3-3).

Qatar is already assured of a World Cup berth by virtue of being the host nation.

Gilas returns to action in late-August when the second round rolls on. Tentative schedules for the fourth window has Gilas facing Jordan on Aug. 27 and Iran on Aug. 30.

The fifth window will have Gilas against Syria on Nov. 27 and Iran on Nov. 30 while the final window will be in Feb 2027 against Syria and Jordan.

Gilas had a promising start to the first round, when it blew past Guam on both occasions in the first window that also saw the debut of Quentin Millora-Brown. But the February window brought some blues for Gilas when it lost a close one to New Zealand before being blown out by Australia in both games played at home.

The recent window began with Gilas almost pulling one out over New Zealand in Auckland, but fell short in double overtime, 106-102. INQ

Manchester City stars Erling Haaland and Marc Guehi will go head-to-head in the World Cup quarter-final this weekend when England take on Norway

Manchester City had just completed a comeback for the ages to stun Liverpool at Anfield with two goals in the final throes of an all-action contest that will live long in the memory of every Blues fan who watched it.

Bernardo Silva had hauled City level late on and Erling Haaland hit the winner from the penalty spot after the comical scenes of the Norwegian and Dominik Szoboszlai fouling each other as the ball rolled into an empty net before VAR intervened and awarded a spot kick.

As the players were walking off the Anfield pitch, the cameras focussed in on Haaland. The striker felt they were looking at the wrong man. “Go film him, come on he’s there,” said the striker, gesturing to Guehi before wrapping his arms around his team-mate and thrusting him into shot. Guehi wasn’t too interested in the attention but he had just delivered a masterclass on what was only his third City appearance in a cauldron of an atmosphere.

His showing was not lost on Haaland and both players know exactly what they will be facing this weekend on the biggest stage of all as they do battle in a World Cup quarter-final.

England and Guehi meet Norway and Haaland in Miami on Saturday night in what promises to be an electric tie.

Guehi, who arrived at the Etihad in January, has seen up close just how good Haaland is and how difficult he is to stop. The striker has seven goals in the World Cup already and he sat out the final group game against France.

His double in the last-16 saw off Brazil and if England are going to reach the semi-finals then stopping him will be imperative.

Guehi’s pace, quality and tenacity will be key and the City man is relishing the battle that lies ahead. “I know he’ll be up for it,” he said of Haaland.

“It’ll be a challenge, but it’s good to see some familiar faces and try and do our best and try and get a win. It’s going to be fun, it will be fun.”

Novak Djokovic defeats Felix Auger-Aliassime in the longest Wimbledon quarter-final in history at five hours and 15 minutes, to set up a meeting with Jannik Sinner in the final four at SW19.

READ MORE: Djokovic wins five-set epic to set up Sinner semi-final

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Tuesday that it would lift restrictions on Russian athletes to allow them to compete in team events and in qualifying competitions.

It all comes ahead of qualifying events for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and just two months after the IOC lifted restrictions for Russia’s ally Belarus, whose athletes would be allowed to compete again without any restrictions and with their national symbols.

Russia has been shut out of international sporting competitions since it launched an invasion in Ukraine that began the war in 2022.

The IOC suspended Russia’s Olympic Committee in 2023, after Russia unilaterally recognized regional sports organizations in the four Ukrainian territories that Russia illegally annexed in 2022.

Russian athletes were still able to compete as neutral athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, but only if they are proven to not support the war and have no affiliation with Russia’s military or security forces.

IOC chief: Athletes ‘should not pay the price’ of war

In a statement, the IOC said that a thorough analysis by its Legal Affairs Commission had found that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) no longer included any regional sports organizations in territories falling under the jurisdiction of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine as its members.

IOC president Kirsty Coventry told reporters that the IOC opposes “any kind of violence and war and will continue to support Ukraine,” but she also said that it wasn’t right that athletes “should pay the price for this.”

Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev welcomed ‌the IOC’s decision, saying it should clear the way for Russian athletes to make a full return to the international sporting ‌stage.

“Our country’s return to the Olympic family is a green light for international federations to reinstate all our athletes,” Degtyarev said.

No flag or anthem for now

The IOC said, however, that Russians will still go through strict anti-doping procedures in order to “address the lack of confidence in the global sporting community relating to the return of Russian athletes to international competition.”

The IOC also said it would not organize IOC events in Russia or invite Russian government or state officials to its events.

The ban on the Russian national anthem being played and the flag being displayed has also been kept in place for now.

“We made it clear that all athletes had the possibility to compete at the Olympic Games. This is what this decision speaks to. It allows Russian athletes to take part in sports competitions. We thought it was really important for athletes to have that possibility,” Coventry told ‌a press conference.

“It was very clear when we strengthened our neutrality bylaw that selection would not be based only on sports performance, but also ability to serve as role models,” she added.

Edited by: Zac Crellin