And indeed it was Egypt who took the lead with the first attempt of the game as Yasser Ibrahim rose above Lisandro Martinez to power home Marwan Attia’s inch-perfect cross to stun the Atalanta crowd.

Haissem Hassan was brought into the team to offer the Pharaos a different attacking dimension but his lack of defensive awareness cost his side when the winger bundled Nicolas Tagliafico over in the box to give Argentina and Lionel Messi a penalty.

However, against the odds Mostafa Shobeir was able to get down confidently to his left to push away the penalty and prevent the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer from drawing his side level.

The first-half hydration break appeared to spark Albiceleste into life. Alexis Mac Allister should’ve done better with a header that was well saved by Shobeir before Messi struck the post with a long-range free-kick.

His best save of the half was still to come though as Julian Alvarez turned Tagliafico’s low cross goalwards only to see the keeper react excellently to keep out the Atletico Madrid man’s goalbound strike.

Egypt briefly seemed like they’d gone two goals to the good just before the hour mark when Zico brilliantly finished off a fine team move with a left-footed strike, only to see the VAR pull it back and eventually disallow the goal due to a foul in the build up.

But less than 10 minutes later, the Egypt left winger finally did get his goal. After another devastating counter-attack, Salah played the ball into Hassan who skinned Martinez and fired a low right-footed cross into the box for the onrushing Zico to slam home.

While the Pharaohs continued to threaten on the break, Albiceleste probed for a way back into the game and it eventually came via Cristian Romero, who broke free of Ibrahim in the box. Shobeir got a hand to the Tottenham Hotspur defender’s header but it wasn’t enough to stop the attempt.

In the blink of an eye, the World Champions were level and there’s no prizes for guessing the man to do it. After some desperate defending of the box, the ball fell to Lionel Messi who smashed in a fearsome half-volley that flew in off the crossbar to make the score 2-2. Once again, when Argentina needed him most, Messi stepped forward.

As the clock ticked into injury-time the game opened up yet further. Moments after Egypt had a penalty claim waved away, Lautaro Martinez surged down the right wing and delivered a delicious cross for Enzo Fernandez to head home the winning goal.

No team has quite brought the drama at this tournament like the reigning champions Argentina and this was up there with the most dramatic games in recent World Cup history. Can that history repeat itself with Albiceleste going all the way again this summer?

Argentina 3-2 Egypt result, highlights & stats

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