ITV Sport’s three-man punditry panel were in unanimous agreement that Argentina’s first-half penalty in their World Cup semi-final against Croatia should not have been awarded.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring with a lethal left-footed finish from the penalty spot after his strike partner Julian Alvarez collided with Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic inside the area. Messi converted the penalty to become Argentina’s record World Cup scorer.
Alvarez ran through on goal and lobbed the ball past the advancing Livakovic, who stopped in his tracks, with the Manchester City striker then colliding with the goalkeeper - leaving the referee no hesitation but to point to the penalty spot.
However, ITV ’s punditry panel of former England internationals Gary Neville and Ian Wright alongside former Manchester United captain Roy Keane, all were on the same page in believing that the penalty call was the incorrect one – believing Croatia were harshly done by.
Neville opened the discussion on the ITV panel by saying: “No (it should not have been a penalty), not at all. We’re right above it here, this angle is a little further away but the ‘keeper comes out, he basically just makes a movement to his right, stops himself before the actual shot is about to be taken and Alvarez just runs into him and takes his leg away.
“This is not a penalty. What else can he do? He has to make that motion to try and save the ball, he plants his feet. If he’d carried on running out and taken out Alvarez then fair enough, but he stops before it and I don’t know if that’s a penalty.”
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Wright concurred with Neville, with the former Arsenal striker adding: “When you look at it, the centre forward, he’s actually mis-kicked it to be honest. If he hits it and it goes into the goal, the goalkeeper can’t do anything like you say, he’s stopped.
“Alvarez miskicks it, it’s not going into the goal, the goalkeeper can’t do anything else but stand his ground and he runs into him. The referee didn’t have a look, I can’t understand it.”
Completing the agreement within the panel, Keane claimed: “Poor defending overall to let him get a run in on goal, but I agree with the lads I don’t think it’s a penalty, where else are you supposed to go?”
At this stage, referee analyser Peter Walton was introduced to explain why the officials had come to the correct conclusion to award a penalty. When Walton was talking through the rules, Wright replied “wow…wow.”
