Are Argentina being treated favourably at World Cup?

Argentina's World Cup campaign has been marked by two narrow 3-2 victories in the knockout rounds, and their win over Egypt has sparked allegations of bias from the African nation. Egypt has asked FIFA to kick the officials in charge of their last-16 defeat out of the tournament, alleging favoritism towards Argentina and their star player Lionel Messi. Coach Hossam Hassan said Egypt had been "treated unfairly" and "suffered injustice," suggesting FIFA wanted to keep the world champion in the competition. BBC Sport examines whether there is any substance to the conspiracy theory. Egypt had a goal ruled out through VAR after Marwan Attia was penalized for stepping on Lisandro Martinez's foot at the start of the move, though they were already leading 1-0 at the time. They also believed there were two potential penalty claims before Argentina's winner, but the article concludes that while the decisions were controversial, there is "hardly proof of a conspiracy in favour of Messi."