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Argentina vs France World Cup: Finally, referee admits his error
Argentina last Sunday beat France on penalty shoot-out to win their third World Cup in Qatar.
Meanwhile, National Daily can confirm that the officiating referee during the intense final game of the tournament between Les Blues and La Albiceleste, Szymon Marciniak has finally admitted that he made an error during the showdown.
Though Marciniak who became the first Pole to officiate the biggest game in world football last Sunday had received plenty of applause from pundits and fans for his performance.
The 41-year-old Marciniak became the first Pole to officiate the biggest game in world football at Qatar World Cup final
Given how Qatar 2022 also saw some rather shocking refereeing decisions, not least in England’s quarter-final exit to France, it was truly fantastic to see Marciniak remain calm and composed throughout the 120 minutes.
Among his highlight, he rightfully awarded three penalties, booked French striker Marcus Thuram for diving and barely had to consult VAR
However, the 41-year-old has since stated that the match was not perfectly refereed and while no ‘big’ mistakes were made, he feels there was one decision he would have made differently in hindsight.
Speaking to Sport.PL, the referee revealed:
‘Of course, there were mistakes in this final’
‘I interrupted the French counter-attack after a bad tackle by Marcos Acuna.
‘I was afraid that the fouled player wanted to unwind, and I read it wrong because nothing happened, and you could give an advantage and then come back with a card.
‘It’s hard. In a game like this, I take such a mistake in the dark. The important thing is that there were no big mistakes.’
Marciniak admitted to have wrongfully interrupted the French counter-attack after a bad tackle by Marcos Acuna
While this counter-attack would almost certainly not have affected the outcome of the match, that hasn’t stopped a petition in France calling for the final to be replayed gaining over 200,000 signatures.
However, the petition makes no mention to Acuna’s foul, and is rather based on two baseless grievances with Argentina’s first two goals.
L’Equipe have also stated that Lionel Messi’s injury time goal should not have counted because some of Argentina’s substitutes had encroached onto the pitch in celebration before the ball had crossed the line.
But Marciniak hit back at the French newspaper over this claim, even pulling up a picture that showed Les Bleus’ bench doing the exact same thing for one of Kylian Mbappe’s goals.
He added: The French didn’t mention this photo, where you can see how there are seven Frenchmen on the pitch when Mbappe scores a goal.’