For about 70 minutes on Sunday night in Atlanta, Argentina looked done. Dead in the water. The defending world champions were down 2-0 to Egypt in the Round of 16, and nothing was working. Their attack looked flat. Egypt was winning every second ball. It had all the makings of a massive upset.
Then the switch flipped.
Argentina scored three times in 13 minutes to pull off a 3-2 win, one of the wildest comebacks this World Cup has seen. Lionel Messi called it “crazy” afterward, and he meant it in the best way.
“It was a relief for everyone, the way that game went,” Messi said. “It’s not easy to come back from 2-0 down. But this group never lets up. We had the luck of getting the goal quickly from Cuti and we still had time to turn it around. I’m very happy the people get to keep being here, keep enjoying.”
How Argentina pulled it off
The rally started with a simple goal — Christian Romero finishing from close range to cut the deficit in half. That gave the team life. Then Messi did Messi things. A half-volley with his left foot that skimmed the underside of the crossbar and barely crossed the line. The kind of goal that makes you forget he’s 39 and in what’s likely his last World Cup.
With stoppage time ticking toward the final whistle, Enzo Fernandez headed in a cross from the right to put Argentina ahead. Just like that, the champs were through.
It wasn’t pretty. But it was unforgettable.
What comes next for Messi and Argentina
The quarterfinal is Saturday in Kansas City against Switzerland, who beat Colombia on penalties Tuesday in a scrappy, tightly contested game. Argentina knows they got away with one against Egypt. That kind of escape can either wake a team up or expose cracks that eventually get exploited.
Messi and his teammates insist this group has the mentality to handle it. They’ve been here before — scraping through knockout rounds, leaning on individual brilliance, surviving by inches.
If they beat Switzerland, it’s two more wins for a second straight World Cup title. That feels possible after Sunday night. It also feels like a miracle they even get to try.
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