ATLANTA -- Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said his team was the victim of an "injustice" in its 3-2 World Cup round-of-16 defeat against Argentina, suggesting FIFA wanted Lionel Messi to "stay in the running" at the competition.
Reigning world champions Argentina fought back from down 2-0 to win the game following a stunning late intervention by Messi, who created one goal and scored another.
But Egypt were furious at having a goal disallowed following a VAR review and then a subsequent failure to check on an apparent foul by Alexis Mac Allister in the immediate buildup to Enzo Fernández's stoppage-time winner. And Hassan said Egypt were beaten by "external factors" as well as events on the pitch.
"We looked better than the reigning champions -- better in everything -- but the result was influenced by internal factors on the pitch and external factors off it," Hassan told reporters. "Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the running.
"In football, there are sometimes external factors that go beyond the technical aspects. The world champion received support at every level."
The referee for the match was France's François Letexier, whom Hassan said his team had objected to ahead of the showdown. The coach was further upset that the video assistant referee didn't feel a need for Letexier to review the apparent Mac Allister foul.
"There seem to be pressures from the Argentina side on this outcome," he said. "We were objecting to the selection of the referee because of the French situation [Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final], but everybody has to suffer at some point, and we suffered.
"We haven't seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ruled out [an alleged foul on Mo Salah]. It was not even checked by the VAR, and our second goal was remarkably, for whatever reason, disallowed.
"I want to put it in beautiful words and say, 'Hard luck,' but we have been treated unfairly and it has been an injustice," he said.
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Hassan was involved in a verbal confrontation with Letexier at the end of the game, and he said he accused the official of "having something to hide."
"What I told the referee was, 'This is unfair,'" Hassan said. "I said maybe he is carrying a scar or has something to hide.
"If somebody is trying to hide something, they often fail to hide it."
Egypt forward Mostafa Zico said it was difficult to watch the match slip away.
"Hard luck. The match was in our hands and slipped away at the last moment," he said. "Strange things happened on the pitch.
"We were hard done by [the referee] today, and everyone saw that. I won't talk about something like this. We were winning 2-0. After the 2-0 result, everything went against us and worked against us. I don't even know why the second goal was disallowed, I don't see any reason for it. But we must look for a solution so that a second goal doesn't come. He wanted to disallow the third one too, but thank God, God didn't grant him success."
Zico said Egypt did not take the win for granted when they scored the second goal.
''No, we didn't. It wasn't in our calculations that the match was already over," he said. "We know very well that we are playing against the world champions, and even before the match started, we knew we were playing a strong team, a team that is a title favorite.
"But I mean, if they had won by their own effort, it would have made a big difference to us."
Egypt goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir said he was proud of how the team fought until the last minute.
"Of course, some mistakes happened from all of us in the last 10 minutes," he said. "But in the end, we are also playing against the world champions."
Egypt reserve goalkeeper Mohamed Alaa echoed Zico about how the disallowed goal affected the match.
"The refereeing was obvious in front of everyone. I won't talk about it. The refereeing was clear. We had a goal disallowed, and we had a penalty. The penalty was turned against us into a counterattack goal," he said. "The objections were only toward the referee, meaning regarding the refereeing errors.
"That's what we were objecting to, nothing more than that. Captain Salah entered the locker room, gathered all the players and spoke with them. He said, 'Hard luck, it's over. It's God's decree and what he willed happened regarding what took place. Let's build on this, and what's coming will be good, God willing.'"