‘We’ve left the circus’ –  Argentina furious at Paris Olympics after defeat to Morocco | OneFootball

Argentina were furious after their controversial defeat to Morocco on the opening day of the Paris Olympics. Argentina were left stunned by both the refereeing and the organisation of the tournament as they lost 2-1 to the African nation after a lengthy delay saw the game finish two hours after it was suspended.,

In a tight game, which Morocco led 2-1 late into 15 minutes of injury time, tempers boiled over in the stands when Argentina scored an equaliser after time had supposedly elapsed. Morocco fans threw flares onto the pitch and began a pitch invasion causing the referee to take both sets of players into the dressing room.

The match was temporarily suspended and the crowds were asked to leave, all the while VAR was doing its routine check of the goal, which it found to be offside. The crowd was cleared and communication was restrictive due to the earlier troubles, as the organisation waited for an empty stadium to resume play.

As ESPN writes, the organisers may have believed it to be safer to announce that the goal had been disallowed after the stadium was empty, but that meant that there was a 90-minute delay between the game being suspended and the VAR decision being announced (even if the decision had been found almost instantly).

Argentina are far from content with what occurred. Especially in the context of the diplomatic row that has slowly been engulfing France and the South American nation caused by some in the Argentina football team singing a racist and transphobic song about Les Bleus during their celebrations of winning the 2024 Copa América.

Nicolás Tagliafico (31) who was part of the Argentina squad that won the Copa América and is now part of the Olympic team competing in France tweeted “We’ve left the circus, are we going to talk about how the reason why [the game] was suspended or are we going to continue being morons? If it had been the other way round I can’t even imagine what they would be saying.”

A sentiment supported by his manager, Javier Mascherano who stated after the game “I can’t explain what happened. We spent about an hour and a half in the dressing room where they didn’t tell us what was going to happen […]It’s the biggest circus I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know why they spent an hour and 20 minutes reviewing a goal.”

GFFN | Nick Hartland