Argentina were handed a first-half penalty against Croatia in the FIFA World Cup 2022 semifinal on Wednesday. Lionel Messi converted from the spot to give his side a 1-0 lead before Julian Alvarez scored a stunner.
Also read:Julian Alvarez makes it 2-0 for Argentina, his picture as a kid with Lionel Messi goes viral
Argentina led Croatia 2-0 at halftime.
In the 32nd minute, Alvarez tried to chip the ball over Croatian goalkeeper Livaković . He went around him but was brought down. The penalty was given.
However, several social media users argued that the keeper was not really blocking the Argentina player.
“The penalty incident on replays make it seem even worse. Unless the keeper has the ability to vanish into thin air, that shouldn’t be a pen. Livakovic makes absolutely no movement to stop Alvarez,” a Twitter user said.
“The goalkeeper stood his ground. Did not take any action and Alvarez hit his body rather than Livakovic taking any drastic measures. No VAR checking was done and a penalty was awarded in favour of Argentina. This was never a penalty. #FIFAWorldCup #Qatar2022,” another one added.
“Alvarez had already released the ball, that wasn’t even a penalty,” a third one said.
It wasn’t just Croat fans who vented out their frustration on social media. Commentators Gary Nevile, Roy Keane and Ian Wright seemed to agree as they felt that the penalty decision was ambiguous and not necessarily correct. The Croatian football twitter handle tweeted mentioning it.
Alvarez continued his amazing run as he drove a ball all over the ground, dribbled it single-handedly and scored a brilliant goal by finally going past Livaković, the Croat wall and scored in the 40th minute.
Also read: Why Croatia’s Josko Gvardiol is wearing a mask at FIFA World Cup 2022
With a win Argentina will enter the final for a sixth time and their second in 8 years. Messi will be given another chance to win one final match and add the only feather missing in his cap.
