While Lionel Messi stole all the headlines thanks to his mesmerizing performance in Argentina vs. Croatia, there was some controversy surrounding Tuesday's FIFA World Cup semifinal encounter, which the South Americans won 3-0.
These two nations locked horns for a spot in this Sunday's final at the Lusail Stadium and were expected to play out an evenly-contested affair. However, despite dominating the possession, Croatia found themselves 2-0 down by half-time courtesy of Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez goals.
However, the first of those two goals sparked tremendous debates as it came courtesy of a penalty. Daniele Orsato, who was the referee for this fixture, pointed to the spot after Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic collided with Alvarez inside the box while through on goal. La Pulga stepped up and converted it with ease but not everyone believed it should have been a penalty.
ITV pundits Roy Keane, Gary Neville, and Ian Wright were all in agreeance that it should not have been awarded while others argued that the referee was spot on. Speaking after the game, Vatreni captain Luka Modric expressed his frustration with the decision to give a penalty.
The Real Madrid midfielder, who is one of many icons playing in his final FIFA World Cup, did something we have never witnessed before: brutally criticizing the referee in his post-match interview.
The 37-year-old thought that it was an extremely soft penalty to give and he did not hide this sentiment. Modric, who has crossed paths with the aforementioned Italian official before, labeled him as one of the worst but the midfield maestro still hailed Messi and Co. as the "fair winners" of that semifinal tie.
"Argentina was a fair winner of the match, they were better, they deserved to win, but these things have to be mentioned, I generally don't do them, but today they have to be done," Modric said after the final whistle, as per Goal. ''I don't like to talk about referees, but this is one of the worst. I don't have a good memory of [Orsato], he's a disaster. For me, it wasn't a penalty."
"Despite this, I don't want to detract from Argentina. The penalty killed us. We have to recover for third place and win that match," the former Tottenham ace added.
Despite his frustrations, Luka continued to show his class, hailing Leo for his brilliant performance and wishing the Argentine icon the best of luck in this weekend's FIFA World Cup final.
''Congratulations and I wish good luck in the final to Messi. He is having an amazing tournament and he's showing his greatness and quality," the midfielder said.
Croatia will now head into the third-place playoff while the Copa America holders move on to the final, where they will face France or Morocco. All eyes will be on La Pulga as the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner looks to make amends for 2014 and bring the trophy to Buenos Aires in what is his final FIFA World Cup tournament.
