Roy Keane and Graeme Souness were involved in a fiery bust-up as they shared different opinions on the decision to award Argentina a penalty in their World Cup opener against Saudi Arabia.
Lionel Scaloni's side were given a spot-kick inside the opening 10 minutes when Leandro Paredes was pulled down. The referee didn't initially give a penalty before VAR intervened. They instructed Slavko Vincic to go over to the monitor, and he felt that Paredes had his shirt pulled unfairly, handing Lionel Messi a chance to open his account.
The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner duly obliged and coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner, sending the Saudi goalkeeper the wrong way. Argentina dominated the rest of the first half, although Scaloni's side saw three goals ruled out for offside, with the Green Falcons' high line working a treat throughout.
Inevitably, the decision to award Argentina a penalty was a huge talking point at half-time, with Keane and Souness disagreeing with each other. The former felt it wasn't a spot-kick and claimed there is going be a "record number of penalties" at the World Cup, while Souness and fellow ITV pundit Joe Cole thought it was the correct decision.
When asked about the first half, Keane began on ITV: "I don’t think it’s been great. Argentina had a good start but to me looked like they were going through the motions, I don’t think it was a penalty, Saudi Arabia are doing well to be fair to them, they’re hanging in there, playing a high line - obviously a dangerous game to play.
"They got lucky once or twice, they need to do better on set-pieces but overall disappointed with Argentina, need to see more, going through the motions a bit."
Graeme Souness responded: "He’s not watching the ball, Laura. He doesn’t know where the ball is, he’s only interested in the Argentinian player, he doesn’t know when it’s been kicked, he’s not watching and that is a penalty."
Joe Cole, meanwhile, didn't know where to look as the duo continue to bicker live on ITV.
Was it the right decision to give Argentina a penalty? Let us know in the comments below!
The argument continued as follows:
RK: "No, no, no. All this will do is encourage diving. He’s dragging him down, he’s dragging him down!"
GS: "Roy, you’re not listening to what Laura is saying. The directive from referees…"
RK: "I heard exactly what she said. It’s going to encourage diving."
GS: "This is not about opinion, that’s a fact, the guy wasn’t looking at the ball."
RK: "Well I’m here to give my opinion. That’s not a penalty."
GS: "This is not about our opinions, it’s about the laws of the game."
RK: "Well what are we here for? I’m here to give my opinion."
GS: "Their interpretation…"
RK: "That’s not a penalty."
GS: "Their interpretation, the new laws…"
RK: "That’s my opinion, that’s why I’m here. I’m here to give my opinion, that’s a penalty. I’m here to give my opinion that’s not a penalty."
GS: "I’ve heard you say it 10 times. Do you want to say it again?"
RK: "That’s not a penalty."
GS: "Let someone else speak."
RK: "Go ahead."
GS: "You learn a lot more if you listen than talk all the time."
RK: "Go ahead, go ahead."
GS: "The ball has come in, he’s not looking at the ball. The directive from the referee is that’s a penalty, we have to accept that’s a penalty. We’ve seen a different Argentina today, it’s not the Argentina I expected to see, they don’t seem too intent on dominating the ball. I just feel Argentina have another gear to go into."
RK: "We’re going to see a record number of penalties at this World Cup, record number. That’s not a penalty."
GS: "I thought we moved on from that."
