For the second semi final in as many days, a controversial refereeing decision divided pundits, this time during France’s clash with Morocco.
The World Cup holders took the lead vs the tournament’s surprise package, with Theo Hernandez opening the scoring after less than five minutes. But if there was any fears that Morocco would fold, they were quickly dismissed as they found their way back into the match.
And as well as hitting the post through Jawad El Yamiq, the Atlas Lions had strong penalty shouts waved away before the half-time whistle. The contentious issue occurred in the 27th minute of action when Sofiane Boufal collided with French defender Hernandez in the box.
Boufal quickly pleaded his case to Cesar Ramos, only for the Mexican referee to penalise him and subsequently give him a yellow card. Replays appeared to show that the decision could have gone either way, with Hernandez definitely making contact.
Speaking about the decision in the BBC Sport studio, pundits Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand revealed they saw the incident very differently. “Not for me no, Hernandez actually gets the ball,” Shearer said.
Ferdinand then quickly interjected, surprisingly going against the defender: “He does [get the ball], but then he catches the legs. Anywhere else on the pitch that’s a foul…so why hasn’t he given a penalty! It’s out of order. He definitely doesn’t deserve to be booked anyway!”
France and Morocco were facing off with a place in Sunday’s World Cup final vs Argentina at stake. Argentina booked their berth after a convincing 3-0 win over Croatia on Tuesday night.
It was another night of Lionel Messi magic as the Paris Saint-Germain inspired the South American champions to another final. But his early goal was tinged with controversy after Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was penalised for fouling Julian Alvarez.
Livakovic collided with the Manchester City forward, with the referee on that occasion in no doubt about awarding a penalty. The ITV experts weren’t as sure however, with the likes of Gary Neville and Ian Wright both disputing the call.
Neville started the discussion: “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.”
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.”
