2024 Olympics: chaotic ending to Argentina-Morocco football match

• Although Argentina had tied the game 2-2, their last goal was disallowed an hour and a half into the match, resulting in Morocco as the winner.

Amid Argentina’s celebrations after seemingly drawing 2-2 against Morocco at the Paris 2024 Olympics, fans threw water bottles at the Argentine players from the Moroccan stands and even a firework fell near the substitutes’ bench and caused a roar in the stadium.

The disturbances led to the suspension of the match. An hour and a half later, Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg ruled that the match should be restarted for a 3-minute period. When the teams returned, the action of Argentina’s last goal was reviewed, but it was finally disallowed for an offside by Bruno Amione.

The match, which was completed without spectators, was played at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint Etienne on 24 July and ended with a 2-1 victory for Morocco.

“It’s a circus, I’ve never experienced anything like it in my entire sporting career,” Argentine coach Javier Mascherano told the news outlet. The nation After the match.

Tension over additional minutes ended in riots

Tensions in the stadium increased when the referee decided to grant 15 additional minutes in the second half, which started with Morocco leading 2-0 and then went on to make it 2-1, with Argentina frequently approaching the goal.

When the Albiceleste team scored the second goal in the 105th minute of the match, riots began in the stands of the stadium, due to complaints by the Moroccan squad about the amount of extra time.

In the videos shared on social media, it can be seen that when the Argentines retreated to the locker room, there was an invasion of fans wearing red shirts. For this reason, the French Police entered with shields to try to control the tense atmosphere that was caused after the last goal.

#24Jul | This is how a firecracker fell from the stands onto the pitch in the middle of Argentina’s celebration 🇦🇷 after drawing 2-2 against Morocco 🇲🇦 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

🎥: @Eurosport_ESpic.twitter.com/wNX1UNq2Ig

— The Daily (@eldiario) July 24, 2024

Reactions to the outcome of the match

Several players from the Argentine national team, who won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar y won the Copa América on July 14expressed their outrage at what happened during the U-23 team’s debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Captain Lionel Messi was one of the first to express his discontent with what happened, which he described as “unusual” on his Instagram account.

Footballer Nicolás Tagliafico also expressed his discontent on his X profile: “Leaving the circus, are we going to talk about the reason why it was suspended or are we going to continue acting like fools? If it had been the other way around, I can’t even imagine what they would be saying.”

“I screamed a lot about the 2-2. Now the game is back on, I just read it. I don’t know what happened. Three more minutes, no one. I was just reading it, it’s crazy,” said Leandro Paredes.

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Match between Argentina and Morocco

At the start of the second half with the score in Morocco’s favour at 0-2, Argentina’s national coach Javier Mascherano brought on Alavés striker Giuliano Simeone, who scored Argentina’s first goal.

In the final minutes of the match, Argentina scored the second goal through Cristian Medina. However, the match was suspended for more than an hour due to pitch invasion.

With the players in the locker room, the last goal was reviewed, which, after certification by the VAR, was cancelled.

Argentina’s next match will be on Saturday 27 July against Iraq, while Morocco will play against Ukraine.

Spain debuted with victory against Uzbekistan

The Spanish football team won against Uzbekistan (1-2) in the first match of the group stage of the Paris Olympic Games played on Wednesday 24 July at the Parc des Princes.

EFE news agency reported that Spain took the lead in the first half with a goal by Marc Pubill that was neutralized by a penalty, before the break, by Eldor Shomurodov. The second goal was scored by the player Sergio Gómez in the 62nd minute.

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