World Cup: Lionel Messi rips Argentina from the jaws of defeat vs. Egypt

ATLANTA — Like the sunrise, the tide, and the changing of the seasons, Leo Messi is inevitable. And like a natural force, he willed Argentina to an astounding comeback victory over Egypt.

Held scoreless and down two goals 78 minutes into the game, Argentina scored three times in 13 minutes, with Messi striking the equalizer, to win 3-2 and push on through to the World Cup quarterfinals. It was a shocking turnaround for the defending champions, leaving Egypt as arguably the most heartbroken team in the tournament, so close to glory.

The narratives around both clubs ran in starkly different directions. Argentina, the defending champion, was a suddenly vulnerable Goliath coming off a treacherous knockout round matchup against tiny Cape Verde that ran all the way into extra time. Despite going 4-0 coming into Tuesday's match, La Albiceleste has not had a serious challenge this entire World Cup. Messi had stacked seven goals atop one another, a magnificent run for the apparently ageless 39-year-old, but could it continue as the competition grew tougher?

Egypt, meanwhile, continued to revel in the twin joys of its first-ever World Cup victory and a dramatic penalty-kick win over Australia four days ago. The number of fans in Atlanta sporting blue-and-white-striped Messi No. 10 jerseys outnumbered the entire Egyptian contingent by at least a factor of five, but fans of the Pharaohs still showed out well. Pharaoh headdresses and Mohamed Salah jerseys dotted the inside of sold-out Atlanta Stadium, and the vibe was full-on playing-with-house-money joy.

The round-of-16 match began with both teams in feisty moods, testing the edges of one another's defenses. Egypt, shooting at a goal backed entirely by thousands of blue-and-white-striped Argentine faithful, threw a few crosses at keeper Emiliano Martínez. But those were merely a preamble for the 15th-minute uppercut: a high, arcing beyond-the-box shot by Marawan Attia that Yasser Ibrahim headed past a motionless Martínez.

Three minutes later, Argentina appeared ready to equalize. A penalty in Egypt's box, a penalty kick awarded, Messi sauntering with the ball in his hand … the GOAT was going to even up the score, right? Not quite …

Mostafa Shoubir guessed correctly, blocking Messi's shot. That marked Messi's fourth World Cup penalty kick miss, his second of this tournament, against four successful shots — a surprisingly weak run for such a prolific scorer. The match rolled into the hydration break with Argentina in an unexpectedly vulnerable position.

La Albiceleste came out of the break firing, but Shoubir was up to the challenge. Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez and Messi all took shots at the Egyptian keeper; all came up short. On Argentina's sixth attempt of the half, Julián Alvarez fired a shot off a brilliant Nicolás Tagliafico cross that Shoubir once again deflected, but the Egyptian keeper landed hard on the turf and required a bit of time to catch his breath.

The first half ended with Egypt up 1-0, snapping an astounding Argentina streak. La Albiceleste had not trailed at the half of a World Cup match — any match — since July 3, 2010, when Argentina lost a 4-0 howler to Germany. After staying above water for 22 matches since then, Argentina headed into the Atlanta Stadium locker room knowing that they'd missed multiple opportunities to score … and that Shoubir wouldn't be making it easy on them the second half.

Egypt spent the first minutes of the second half the same way they spent most of the first, flirting with danger by allowing Argentina to work deep in Pharaoh territory. But at the same time, Argentina played with all the intensity of an off-year friendly, at a stately pace with little aggression. As the game clock ticked toward one hour, and still Argentina couldn't manage to get past Shoubir.

And then: disaster for Argentina, glory for Egypt, two times over.

In what could have been a crushing blow, VAR overturned a magnificent 58th-minute goal from Zico off a Salah assist. The on-field referee didn't make the call, an after-the-fact video review did.

And that call would have been a crime against soccer … had Egypt not promptly come back and scored again. Once again, Zico streaked toward the goal, and once again he found the back of the net. And this time, VAR couldn't do a damn thing about it:

Zico's goal took all the energy out of the overwhelmingly pro-Argentina crowd, but 10 minutes later, Argentina's Cristian Romero whipped it up again with, at long last, the first Argentine goal of the afternoon. Romero headed in a Messi cross to cut the Egyptian lead to 2-1.

And then, well … the inevitable. In the minutes after Romero's goal, Egypt was clinging to its one-goal lead with both hands … and then Messi ambled up and stomped on their fingers. With his trademark blend of otherworldly vision, laser-guided precision and quicksilver speed, Messi rifled a shot that Shoubir only nicked but couldn't stop:

For Messi, it was his World Cup leading eighth goal of the tournament, putting him in the lead (for now) for the Golden Boot.

Regulation ran out with both squads level at 2, and the only surprise left was that stoppage time was seven minutes and not, say, 23. Two minutes into stoppage time, Fernandez completed the all-too-probable comeback, heading in the go-ahead goal:

Argentina now awaits the winner of Colombia vs. Switzerland. Egypt, like so many other nations this World Cup, must now wait another four years, wondering what might have been.