Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi restrained from going after referee Abdulrahman Al-Jassim after Morocco’s loss to Croatia in the FIFA World Cup 2022 third-place match at the Al Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday. The PSG star was angry at the referee for not awarding what Morocco thought was a sure penalty.
Once Hakimi charged at Al-Jassim, other Moroccan players and coach Walid Regragui had to burst into the field to restrain the full-back.
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Morocco lost the match two goals to none. While Achraf Dari scored the only goal for Morocco after they went down in the 7th minute to a Josko Gvardiol header, Dinamo Zagreb star Mislav Orsic scored the winner for the 2018 runner’s up.
Morocco fans were also not happy with the decision and as soon as the referee refused to award it, they started chanting FIFA Mafia implying that FIFA stole the decision from them.
World football’s top body has previously faced criticism from Argentina, Morocco, and also Croatia players for the refereeing decision made during the FIFA World Cup 2022. In fact, after Croatia lost the semi-final match to Argentina earlier, their star player Luka Modric criticized the referee for a penalty decision.
Morocco has produced one of the best runs by an African team in the FIFA World Cup 2022. They became the first team from the continent to reach the semi-final of a World Cup in the Qatar edition when they beat Portugal to secure a spot in the final four.
