Morocco beat Argentina on Wednesday (2-1) for its entry into the 2024 Olympic Games, in Saint-Étienne. But the meeting was marked by several incidents.
A match without head nor tail. After almost four hours and in enormous confusion, Morocco beat Argentina (2-1) in the first match of the first day of the Olympic football tournament, Wednesday July 24, in Saint-Étienne. After more than 15 minutes of added time, while Morocco led 2 goals to 1, Argentinian Cristian Medina scored the equalizing goal after two blocked balls and two shots on the crossbar (90+16, 2-2). The equalizer provoked the anger of around twenty Moroccan supporters who then invaded the pitch of the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium while bottles and cups escaped from the stands to land on the pitch. A firecracker even exploded at the foot of the Argentinian bench, as images from Eurosport, the broadcaster of the match, showed.
Without having time to check the video, an offside position on the Argentinian goal, Glenn Nyberg, the referee of the match, then invited the players to return to the locker room. And without the end of the match having been whistled, the public began to leave the stadium before a message broadcast in the stadium invited the last spectators present to evacuate the stands to resume the game behind closed doors. The official Olympics website quickly indicated that the match was only « interrupted », not finished. It took the organizers around an hour and fifty minutes to restart the game, suspended for security checks, according to a short FIFA press release, released during the interruption of the match. When the players returned to the field, in front of empty stands, the referee, using VAR, canceled the second Argentine goal, and the match briefly resumed, ending with the victory (2-1) for Morocco. Whistles during the Argentinian anthem The anger of the Moroccan supporters was replaced by that of the Argentinian players, furious in the mixed zone, and crying scandal, once the match was well and truly over. « Unusual » posted Lionel Messi more soberly on his Instagram account, while Lyon’s Nico Tagliafico, his teammate with the A’s, wondered on Well before this cacophony, the meeting was also marked by whistles against the Argentine players, particularly during the anthems as well as in the second half during the strong domination of the Albiceleste in search of the equalizer.
