The referee for the 2022 World Cup final Argentina vs France, Szymon Marciniak, admitted to making one mistake that cost France the final match at the Lusail Stadium, Qatar, December 18.
Marciniak received a lot of praise after appearing impressively in the 2022 World Cup final. The Polish referee made a number of important, right decisions when Argentina won 4-2 on penalties over France.
Despite receiving a lot of praise, Marciniak admitted that his performance was not perfect. The 41-year-old referee admitted he made a mistake that cost France.
That mistake came in the 90+8 minutes when Marcos Acuna fouled Kingsley Coman as France counterattacked. Marciniak said he should have taken the play-on and allowed Les Bleus to counterattack before showing Acuna a yellow card.
“Of course there were mistakes in the final. I interrupted the French counter-attack after a bad tackle from Marcos Acuna. I was afraid that the player who was fouled [Coman] wanted to relax first, and I misread the situation, because nothing happened,” Marciniak said as quoted by Sport. .
“I should have given the advantage and then given the card. It was a difficult situation. In a game like this, I take mistakes like that in the dark. The important thing is that there are no big mistakes,” said Marciniak.
Marciniak also replied to criticism by French media L’Equipe that said Argentina’s third goal scored by Lionel Messi was invalid because a number of Team Tango’s substitute players entered the field to celebrate before the goal occurred.
Because according to the rules of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) the referee should have been able to annul the goal because a player entered the field.
“IFAB law says that: the referee must disallow a goal if an additional person is: a player, substitute, substituted player, sent-off player or team official of the team that scored the goal, play is restarted with a direct free kick from the extra person’s position ,” the IFAB rules read.
Marciniak responded by showing photos of some of the French substitutes who also entered the field before Kylian Mbappe scored the third goal from a penalty.
“French [media] don’t mention this photo, where you can see how there were seven French people on the pitch when Mbappe scored the [third] goal,” Marciniak said.
Despite all these problems, Argentina has been confirmed to win the 2022 World Cup. Lionel Messi and his friends won after winning a 4-2 penalty over France after previously being tied 3-3 in normal time and extra time.
