Argentina ‘equaliser’ ruled out by VAR hours after Morocco match suspended
By Jeremy Wilson
The Olympic football men’s match between Argentina and Morocco ended in utter chaos after the game was suspended for almost two hours, during which a crucial equalising goal was ruled out by VAR.
Morocco had been leading 2-1 after 90 minutes, but 15 minutes of added time were then announced before referee Glenn Nyberg allowed the game to go into the 106th minute when Cristian Medina’s late ‘goal’ appeared to have salvaged Argentina a draw.
This prompted fury from supporters of Morocco and, with some storming the pitch at St Etienne, Nyberg signalled for the players to leave the field of play. Cups and bottles had also been thrown at celebrating Argentina players and what appeared to be a flare landed near the players and coaching staff.
It initially appeared that a 2-2 result would stand. A message on the big screen inside the stadium even said “your session has been suspended please make your way to the nearest exit” and the fans duly shortly after 5pm local French time.
However, after a delay of around 100 minutes, the players then returned to the pitch to begin warming up and it was announced that the match would resume at 7pm with no fans.
The officials decided that a further three minutes should be played and, following a VAR check, also ruled that Medina’s ‘equaliser’ would be disallowed after another player was offside in the build-up.
Fans of Morocco invade the pitch during the Men’s group B match between Argentina and Morocco.Credit: AP
The match finally then did restart, with Morocco holding out to clinch a 2-1 victory thanks to earlier goals either side of half-time from Soufiane Rahimi.
Giuliano Simeono, the son of Atletico Madrid manager Diego, had scored Argentina’s consolation goal.
The game had separately also been paused earlier in the match when a fan came onto the pitch for a selfie with Julian Alvarez, the Argentina and Manchester City forward.
Argentina legend Lionel Messi summed up his nation’s frustration in one word on social media, saying “Insolito” [unbelievable].
Argentina, who won the men’s Olympic football tournament in 2004 and 2008, are managed by the former Liverpool and West Ham midfielder Javier Mascherano, who was part of the gold-medal winning squad 15 years ago.
Mascherano’s team now face Iraq on Saturday and Ukraine on Tuesday but must finish in the top two in the group to advance to the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Spain, who struggled to find their pace in the opening stages of the game, took the lead in the 29th minute against Uzbekistan with a close-range finish from Marc Pubill off Abel Ruiz’s flicked ball.
Uzbekistan, cheered by an ecstatic crowd, equalised just before half-time thanks to Eldor Shomurodov’s penalty following a VAR review for a Pau Cubarsi foul.
Spain wasted a golden chance to restore the lead after the break when Sergio Gomez’s penalty effort was saved by Abduvohid Nematov, but the Real Sociedad player redeemed himself and found the net in the 62nd minute to earn Spain their first three points in Group C.
The Telegraph, London
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