Dismantling the complaints about the referees for Argentina's agonizing qualification of Messi

BarcelonaLeo Messi's Argentina came from behind against Egypt in a match marked by refereeing decisions. The North Africans have bitterly complained about François Letexier's performance and went so far as to claim that the match was "fixed" and that they had suffered "a great injustice." A duel full of controversies, almost all of which favored the current world champions.

The first contentious action occurred in the 19th minute. Nicolás Tagliafico entered the box and lightly touched the ball before the Egyptian Haitham Hassan stretched his leg and impacted the Argentine full-back, who fell to the ground. Letexier correctly pointed to the penalty, although Messi subsequently missed the shot.

The most controversial play occurred in the 59th minute. With the score at 0-1, Ziko extended the lead with an extraordinary goal after a spectacular counter-attack led by Hassan. At the start of the play, however, the Egyptian team regained possession through a tackle by Marwan Attia on Lisandro Martínez. The action went unnoticed by Letexier, but VAR sent the French referee to the monitor to review it. The images dictated the verdict: Lisandro lost control of the ball and fell to the ground because the opponent had dug his studs into his boot. Goal rightly disallowed and a foul in favor of Argentina.

Although the foul occurred very close to the Egyptian penalty area and the goal was scored from 90 meters away, VAR is authorized to intervene because it is part of the same attacking phase: it is precisely the action that allowed Egypt to regain possession and initiate the offensive.

In added time, Enzo Fernández scored the winning goal, but again controversy had occurred moments before in the opposing area. Just before Lionel Scaloni's team scored to make it 3-2, the Pharaohs put a ball into the area and claimed two penalties. The first for a slight pull by Alexis Mac Allister, an action that is not usually sanctioned, because the Egyptian forward was not in a position to participate in the play. The second, for minimal contact between Julián Álvarez and Mohamed Salah. The intensity of the action was very low and the Liverpool forward did not fall as a result of this contact. He was already unbalanced before.

Beyond the stir generated in this Egypt-Argentina match, Letexier's main decisions can be considered technically correct. The problem is another: the lack of consistency with respect to other matches in the tournament. In this World Cup, VAR has decided not to intervene in serious foul play – such as Achraf's tackle on Vinícius or Messi's stamp in the opening match – and also in much more obvious fouls leading to goals, such as Pavlovic's on Vite in Germany-Ecuador. Decisions that show that the same criterion has not been applied throughout the competition.