Jul 25, 2024 07:44 AM IST
Medina scored a goal in the 90+16′, which looked like a 2-2 draw, but it was ruled out about two hours after play was suspended.
The opening day of Paris Olympics football tournament witnessed a dramatic match between Argentina and Morocco, where a late goal by the South American giants was disallowed two hours later. It was all chaos at Saint-Etienne when Argentina played their first match after the controversial ‘racist’ song their players sang attacking France players during their Copa America title-winning celebration in the team bus. The Argentine side was missing the majority of stars from their Copa America squad but the young squad still faced the wrath of fans and were booed during their clash against Morocco. Some fans even entered the pitch as play was suspended with the score tied at 2-2.
When the Argentine players celebrated their second goal, projectiles, including bottles and plastic cups rained down from the stands and several spectators entered the pitch, with the referee promptly blowing the whistle.
In the injury time, Argentina were 1-2 down, and Cristian Medina scored a goal in the 90+16′, which looked like a 2-2 draw, but it was ruled out about two hours after play was suspended.
The teams left the playing area, but the referee had not blown for full-time and the outcome of the match was completely unclear until the sides finally reappeared two hours later to play out three more minutes in a stadium that was by now emptied of spectators.
Argentina football team captain Lionel Messi, who is not part of their Olympic squad, reacted on his Instagram story after the goal was disallowed and they lost the match.
Messi wrote “Insolito” on Instagram story. It translates to ‘unbelievable’ or ‘unusual’ in English.
Argentina manager Javier Mascherano was stunned by what happened during the match, and he didn’t mince his words while describing it as “the biggest circus I’ve ever seen in my life”.
Argentina are looking to win men’s football gold for the third time after success in 2004 and 2008, but Javier Mascherano’s side trailed 2-0 following a brace by Soufiane Rahimi.
Meanwhile, it was an underwhelming performance from Argentina despite having Nicholas Otamendi, Julian Alvarez and Geronimo Rulli – the Copa America winners, in their squad.
