Argentina men’s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni once again highlighted his team’s heart at his press conference after the Albiceleste came back from 2-0 down to beat Egypt 3-2 in the World Cup 2026 round of 16.

“Football is this, not just tactics and strategies,” said Scaloni, who recovered his speech after having to pass on the post-match interview because he was too overcome with emotion.

“Those things are important, no doubt, but if we hadn’t had the heart we had, we would’ve been out,” he added.

Scaloni said the team “believed they could win” after tying the game 2-2, and that it was his players who decided to push under that “positive inertia” to wrap up the game before the extra time.

“We became a team that wasn’t looking for who was marking who or who was going where; we simply pushed forward,” he said.

The Argentina boss insisted that despite the heroic comeback, he never felt his team was playing badly and that the game was under their control. He insisted that he suffers more when he sees that his players “don’t have the tools [they] need,” as they did against Cape Verde.

“The feeling here was that we were going to have a chance—one that could have turned things around,” he added. “When you see that your team is doing well and playing the way it should during the game, you feel more at ease.”

An emotional game for the Lionels

Scaloni was very emotional after the match, becoming visibly tear-eyed. He admitted it’s something that “happens more often in the dressing room” and that players jokingly call him “the Crybaby.”

“It’s the reason I became a coach, to feel these kinds of emotions after retiring,” he said. “For me and my staff, it’s incredible. We relive what we felt when we played.”

The Argentina boss compared the comeback against Egypt with “big things we’ve gone through” and remarked that the team “won’t stop pushing no matter what.”

The Argentina boss placed special focus on team star and captain Lionel Messi, who was playing one of his worst games with the national team before assisting and scoring in the Albiceleste’s 2-2 tie.

“I tell the guys to look at Leo as an example,” Scaloni said. “It’s wonderful, because he could have said, “I missed the penalty, and that’s it—it’s over, we’re done,” but he kept asking for the ball again and tried again. It gives me goosebumps.”

Messi was another who was emotional and tear-eyed at the end of the game, something Scaloni called “impossible to explain.”

“I think this is why Messi plays football; he loves the game,” he added.

The head coach said it’s not “just Messi” and that the rest of the team “held their own” throughout the game in an incredible way.

“That’s what this group is all about,” he added.

According to Scaloni, it was the kind of match that “sets the standard” for all the young players who watched the game and want to play for Argentina. 

“This is who we are; if you’re not Argentine, you just won’t get it. When things are going well, they’re going really well, and when things get tough, we give it our all,” he concluded.

Cover image: Selección Argentina Twitter