Morocco should have been without a penalty! Argentina’s goal was (incorrectly) disallowed

Morocco celebrates a historic win right at the start of the tournament, but with a black mark. The Summer Olympics have not even started and already there is a major controversy. An unprecedented thing happened in the opening match between Argentina and Morocco. An hour and a half after the match, the referees called off Argentina’s equalising goal, and there were 3 minutes of extra time.

The match went off without a hitch. Especially the first half, where there was nothing to solve. Although Argentina dictated the pace of the game, chances were only seen on the Moroccan side. Ilias Akhomach was the first to get a chance, but his shot only grazed the gloves of goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli.

However, in injury time, Soufiane Rahimi opened the net. The 28-year-old Al-Ain striker scored only his 8th goal for the national team. The interesting thing about this player is that in this year’s Asian Champions League, he scored 3 goals in Neymar Al-Hilal’s net and also netted 2 goals off Ronaldo Al-Nassr’s Al-Nassr. In the final, he then added 2 goals with an assist and his team deservedly won the whole competition.

Morocco should definitely not have kicked the penalty

The first controversial moment of the match came in the 5th minute of the 2nd half. Barcelona’s Ilias Akhomach raced down the right side and fell after contact with Barret. The referee didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately awarded a penalty, which was the most protested against by Nicolas Otamendi.

In this situation, it should be mentioned that contact was made, but… Barreto poked Akhomach in the back with one hand and he immediately went down. Even a review of the situation by VAR did not produce a different decision and the penalty was indeed kicked. From the penalty kick mark, Rahimi scored his 2nd goal of the game.

Most of the footballing world would probably agree that in any other top flight event such a penalty would not have been whistled. We would have seen far more penalties at the recently concluded European Championships if such interventions had been whistled.

Argentina strangely lost a point

Cristian Medina equalised in the 16th minute to make it 2-2. Shortly afterwards, Moroccan fans ran onto the pitch and the referee stopped the game. After almost an hour and a half, the players were back on the pitch with the only difference that the score was not 2: 2 but 1: 2.

Medina was offside. Actually, it’s not unusual to break downa situation like that… if the decision hadn’t taken an hour and a half.

In a post-match interview, Argentine coach Javier Mascherano was very harsh in his criticism of the situation. The unprecedented situation is controversial, but nothing actually went wrong. The only mystery is why the referees did not announce the decision to disallow the goal to the players during the long pause.

Source: Olympics, ESPN