That is the question that needs answering. Egypt was knocked out yesterday and are now complaining about corruption and unfair refereeing in a match where they led by two goals to nil up until the 79th minute.
It’s not just them though. Senegal conceded three goals to give up a two goal lead that they held until the 85th minute, Ivory Coast conceded a tap in from Erling Haaland in the 86th minute after working so hard to equalize in that game, DR Congo conceded in the 75th and 86th minutes in their loss to England and South Africa conceded in the 92nd minute to Canada. There is a pattern forming here, a pattern that begs the question; What exactly is it about the latter stages of matches that seems to make African nations lose their heads?
Belgium’s head coach Rudi Garcia after beating Senegal said: “We know these kinds of teams. They lose their tactical structure towards the end of the match.” Egypts result against Argentina proves him right. It was more than just magic from Messi. It was poor marking, poor marking on Cuti Romero who is a known threat from set pieces, poor marking on Lionel Messi who, magical as he is should not have been allowed to ghost into the box as easily as he was and poor marking on Enzo Fernandez who isn’t that good in the air so how is he scoring a header to win Argentina the match? Why were there only two defenders in the box when Lautaro Martinez sent in that cross? Why was the cross allowed to be sent in at all? These questions should be the focus, not the referee who if we’re being honest called in favour of Egypt a lot in the early stages of the match. 
