Hello and welcome to another version of OFFSIDE. This was a day to remember for all World Cup fans Lionel Messi and Argentina came back from two goals down to the grave Mohamed SalahWorld Cup dreams. Meanwhile, the Swiss beat Colombia in a penalty shoot-out to set up a clash with Messi’s Argentina.There was almost a biblical perspective on everything. With 11 minutes to go and two goals down, the World Cup dream looked dead and it was left to Messi and Co. Like the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible, they were captured in the proverbial way: Pharaoh’s men hunt them down and take them out looking them in the face. In the Bible, Moses parted the Red Sea. In football, Messi also pulled off a miracle to knock the Pharaohs out of the World Cup.The difference between a good player and a great player is that in difficult situations, they raise their game. Thierry Henry, who was Messi’s former teammate in Barcelona, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ puts this point in a broadcast on FOX: “You don’t (want to) wake up the beast. You look into his eyes, and he changes… when his team needs him, he raises his game. He starts to take the ball and pass almost everyone to try to change the game.”And he did, grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, helping Cristian Romero equalize with a cross before smashing one in from under the bar to make it 2-2. At that time, it was impossible for the lake to be split, and it was in injury time that Enzo Fernandez completed a stunning attack.
After the game, Messi, like his rival Ronaldo, was crying, although these were tears of joy and release rather than regret. Messi was furious at his miss and, frankly, given his reputation as Shaq, he should have given the job to someone else.He said after the game: “I felt like I left the team at a very important moment. But luckily, fate had something special for me at the end…”Of course, like all things in this World Cup, the whole dispute has turned political.In his meeting after the match, Egypt’s head coach Hossam Hassan said he will not watch the World Cup again because there is no justice in the competition, that there is no respect for fair play, pointing to the goal that was ruled out by VAR and the penalty that was rejected. Changing his philosophy, he said that life was not fair but there should be fairness in the game, correcting the man who received a red card recently saying that he could not believe what had happened.Those who insist on the slow believe that Argentina is favored by FIFA for various reasons. Some say he is promoting “pro-Zionist” Messi. Some point to the lack of melanin diversity in this group because apparently all countries have to be like Disney movies now. Others point to Argentina’s red carpet reception of former Nazis. Some say that Egypt is being punished for being “pro-Palestinian”. Of course, one could argue that the “pro-Palestinian” border in Rafah between Egypt and Palestine is too strong to prevent Palestinians from entering, as Mostafa Shobeir’s security guards did in the first round.
Swiss fans cheer as they watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup 16 soccer match between Switzerland and Colombia in a crowd in Zurich, Switzerland on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (Claudio Thoma/Keystone via AP)
It is interesting how the world is pushing neutral beliefs on the shelf of Messi, including the political consequences around the world, including India, where West Bengal saw a political shift in the politics of Messi’s fateful trip. The cause is real as the number of pirates around the world is very similar to global warming.In any case, in the real world, Messi faces a neutral opponent in his next match, who has not chosen sides like the wars that have torn the world apart: Switzerland.While Argentina were busy turning the Book of Exodus into stoppage time football, Switzerland and Colombia were playing a different kind of knock-on game: one of those who think football should be audited from time to time by chartered accountants. It ended 0-0 after 120 minutes, which is another way of saying that both teams spent two hours doing nothing but the one thing the game called for. Colombia, who had already sent Ghana home earlier, were found in a Swiss storage room where they went to do paperwork and never returned.Then came the penalties, where Switzerland did what Switzerland usually does: stay calm while everyone else realizes the limits of human thought. The Swiss won 4-3 in the shootout, Colombia’s World Cup dream went away from 12 yards, and the tournament got the quarter-final that geopolitical satirists were silently praying for: Argentina against Switzerland.
