The Argentine coach Javier Mascherano expressed disbelief after witnessing a tumultuous end to their Olympic debut match against Morocco at the Saint-Etienne stadium.
The first men's football game of the Olympics faced chaos when fans stormed onto the pitch, leading to more than an hour delay before play resumed behind closed doors. Cristian Medina initially believed he had saved Argentina a 2-2 draw with his late goal in injury time. However, this score was later disallowed for offside by VAR after a brief pause to clear fans from the field.
The match ended up being called into question when the referee took both sets of players off the pitch following Medina's goal due to an offside call. The game was eventually completed with three minutes, which turned out to be irrelevant as Argentina had already lost by a 2-1 scoreline.
Mascherano expressed his frustration at what he described as unclear communication from event organizers before the match resumed. "We spent about an hour and a half in the dressing room where they never told us what was going to happen," Mascherano said, questioning why officials took so long for such a decision following Medina's goal being disallowed.
Despite the tumultuous start of their Olympic journey, Argentina looks forward to facing Iraq on Saturday in Lyon with coach Mascherano emphasizing that his team should focus on upcoming matches and not dwell too much on this match.
Spain secured a 2-1 victory over Uzbekistan at Paris' Stade de France after goals from Marc Pubill and Sergio Gómez, while Uzbekistan managed to equalize with Eldor Shomurodov’s penalty following VAR review for a foul by Pau Cubarsi.
Santi Denia, the Spain coach, attributed their victory to improvement in ball circulation during halftime and emphasized the need for continual development of tactics going forward.
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