Tensions are boiling in Argentina’s World Cup camp over complaints about refereeing.
Egypt were furious after they were knocked out by the champions despite having a 2-0 lead.
An earlier goal to go two ahead was ruled-out for a foul at the other end of the pitch, and then Egypt felt there were two fouls in the build up to the winner.
Egypt’s manager and multiple players called the game ‘fixed’ and since the press have been hammering Argentina with the claims.
The latest to feel the brunt was Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez who walked out of an interview as a result.
He appeared baffled by the question before answering and making a sharp U-turn.
Martinez gets annoyed at refereeing questions
“Nothing to say. The referees are doing an excellent job,” he said.
“You are the ones who generate the controversies. We focus on giving our best on the field…”
Next up for Argentina is Switzerland in the quarter-finals, and coach Lionel Scaloni faced similar questions.
He responded: “There are always criticisms, and I’m not just talking about Argentina.
“We can use this to show the players that some people don’t want Argentina to win. That’s normal. We can use it to make the players better.
“But fundamentally, there’s no favouritism; nowadays, with VAR, it seems very difficult to prove.”
Egypt accuse Argentina of fixing match
Speaking after the 3-2 defeat, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan made some shocking claims.
Hassan said: “I’m going to say what’s on my mind, regardless of the consequences.
“This was clearly a fixed game, and the whole world saw it.
“And I want to say one more thing: if they want Argentina to win so badly, why are they inviting everyone to come and participate?
“It’s all about money. They want Messi to stay in the tournament. In football, many things happen off the field because of vested interests.
“What happened was unfair. Egypt deserved to qualify. We were the better team against Argentina.
“FIFA promotes ‘Fair Play’, but we didn’t see it on the field… without those mistakes, the result would have been different.
“What happened was unfair, they disallowed a goal, I don’t know why. It’s all about marketing, they want Messi to stay.
“There are things that happen off the field; Argentina has support off the field for marketing reasons.”
Midfielder Zico then added: “The referee wasn’t good, he was unfair. His injustice was clear.
“He persecuted us from the start of the match. He doesn’t want us to win. It was a rigged game.
“I really wanted to bring joy to them (the fans), but I apologise. It didn’t happen.
“It wasn’t our fault. That referee… It seems like this match was rigged. We were winning 2-0, and he kept coming at us. Congratulations to Argentina on another World Cup, it seems.”
Goalkeeper Shobeir added to the conspiracy, saying: “I couldn’t see the VAR images properly.
“Those on the bench had a laptop to review the plays, and we still don’t know why that goal (by Zico) was disallowed.
“From where I was, in goal, it didn’t seem like a foul (in the lead-up to Zico’s goal), but I’ll review the images when I get back.
“In the last play, I also saw that Fathy’s shirt was torn on the side. He certainly didn’t tear his own shirt.”
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