The Croatian national team could not oppose anything to Argentina in the match of the semi-final of the World Cup, losing with a score of 0:3. However, the defeat of the Balkans began with a very controversial, as it may seem at first glance, episode: the chief referee appointed a penalty after the checkers goalkeeper collided with an opponent, after which Messi scored the first goal.

After the game, several players were outraged by the decision, but the claims of the Croats look as ridiculous as possible. Footballers should refresh the rules – a penalty was inevitable!

There are no other interpretations

For half an hour after the starting whistle, Argentina and Croatia were in no hurry to create chances at the opponent’s goal, launching reconnaissance attacks over and over again. However, in the 32nd minute, boredom finally gave way to a rather sharp episode, which significantly influenced the further course of the game.

Argentine striker Julian Alvarez ran one on one with Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic and threw the ball past him into the goal. The defense managed to knock the ball out, but a second before that, the goalkeeper collided with the attacker himself. The referee regarded Livakovich’s actions as a violation of the rules and awarded a penalty kick, which was converted by Lionel Messi.

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Before the end of the game, the Argentines hammered two more balls into the opponent’s goal, and after the match, the head coach and the players of the Croatian national team complained about the wrong appointment of a 11-meter kick.

– In my opinion, there was no penalty. And before we should have given a corner. It broke the game. The opponent did not give us much trouble until this penalty, which, in my opinion, should not be given in such a match. And then we conceded the second goal – they were lucky with the rebound of the ball. After that, it became difficult to play, Jutarnji list quotes Luka Modric.

– You’ve seen everything. Was there a penalty? What else penalty?! – said Dominik Livakovich.

– It’s not a penalty, in my opinion. What was Livakovich supposed to do, where could he go? If these are some new rules, they could tell us about them,” Zlatko Dalic believes.

I can’t believe they didn’t give me a corner. Then this penalty… I never commented on the refereeing and was not going to do it. But these are two cardinal mistakes that cost us the match,” said Mateo Kovacic.

— I don’t think there was a penalty. This decision and a quickly conceded second goal finished us off,” Lovro Maier is quoted by 24Sata.

Of course, it would be quite naive to expect agreement with the referee’s decision from the players of the Croatian national team in such a case. However, Zlatko Dalic and his guys should have read the rules before blaming the referee’s decision. The penalty was absolutely correct.

Livakovich put his foot in front of the fleeing Alvarez and knocked him down, coming out to meet and blocking the movement with the entire body area. Yes, Julián crashed into the Croatian goalkeeper at full speed, but before that, the goalkeeper blocked the player’s movement, putting out his foot to everything else. The forward of the Argentines tried to avoid the collision after the ball was thrown, but due to the small distance to the opponent, he did not have time to do it.

As a result, in the fight for the ball, Livakovic lost by a split second and was punished – a typical block with a raised leg without playing the ball. If Dominic had stood motionless with no exposed foot at the time of Alvarez’s departure from the collision, there would have been no reason for a penalty. The arguments that the goalkeeper had nowhere to go sound very strange – with such logic, almost half of the fouls in football should be ignored.

The goalkeeper himself rushed forward and put his foot out, and did not stand still. The frantic criticism of the referee’s decision by the coach and players of the Croatian national team is completely inappropriate. The Russian ex-judge Igor Fedotov also agreed with the decision of the chief arbiter:

Orsato made the right decision. The goalkeeper did not have time to play the ball, put his foot like a barrier and knocked down the Argentine striker. Correct decision: 11-meter kick and a yellow card for depriving a goal or a clear opportunity to score a goal with an attempt to play the ball (he tried to play the ball with his hands), Fedotov wrote in his Telegram channel.