Edinson Cavani punched the VAR monitor, sending it crashing to the ground, after Uruguay were denied a late penalty that could have saved their World Cup campaign.
A 2-0 win over Ghana was not enough to secure their place in the last-16 on Friday due to South Korea’s shock 2-1 victory over Portugal, which was secured in the final moments of Group H.
However, Cavani thought he had forged a huge chance to score a third to edge Korea out on goal difference, when he was felled in the box during a tangle with Alidu Seidu in stoppage time.
Referee Daniel Siebert waved away the protests and Uruguay were knocked out of the Qatar World Cup.
Footage emerged online of Cavani, 35, lashing out at the VAR monitor as he departed the pitch at full-time, the video replay having failed to come to his team’s aid.
El que se fue tranquilo con el VAR fue Cavani pic.twitter.com/Gi27gOOP0Z
— FeFe (@FeFeTheOriginal) December 2, 2022
Pundits disagreed with whether the incident warranted a penalty.
Rio Ferdinand told BBC Sport: “There is contact, it is a penalty. Normally they would send the referee to go and have a look. They could not have seen the pictures we saw.”
However, Chris Sutton felt Uruguay were not unlucky with Siebert hounded off the field by the South American team’s players.
He tweeted: “The blame game. Cavani cheats trying to win a penalty and then he and his teammates blame the referee… Uruguay are bad losers!”
