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3 months ago
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Morocco set the Paris Olympics football competition alight with their dramatic win over the much-fancied Argentina on Wednesday in a game absolutely brimming with controversy.
The Atlas Lions came out 2-1 winners from the match, which saw the Argentinian anthem booed ahead of kick-off, flares, cups and bottles thrown at Albiceleste players and a near two-hour delay.
The Olympics, held in the French capital, comes just over a week after Enzo Fernandez caused controversy after filming himself and some of his team-mates singing an allegedly racist song targeting the France football team.
The Argentine anthem was similarly booed ahead of the nation's rugby sevens games on Wednesday.
Yet after seemingly earning what would be a truly sensational draw in the 106th minute of the game, chaos broke out in Saint-Etienne with fans storming the pitch in protest to the goal, which came after the already scarcely-believable 15 minutes that had been added on.
The announcement that Argentina's dramatic equaliser had been scrubbed off came almost two hours after the game was suspended
Cups were thrown at Argentina's players as their team celebrated Cristian Medina's goal
The pitch invasion led to a delay to the match with the referee eventually calling the players off the field
Flares seemed to be thrown at the Argentina players, while the last-gasp hero Cristian Medina had cups hurled in his direction, before supporters took to the field only to be tackled by security.
The match was then suspended with referee Glenn Nyberg issuing the players off the pitch, and though many thought that was that, the game had only been put on hold, with the message appearing on the big screens: 'Your session has been suspended please make your way to the nearest exit.'
Medina's equaliser came after Giuliano Simeone pulled one back on 68 minutes following Soufiane Rahimi's double either side of the break, and looked to have spared the two-time winners' blushes.
However, while the ground emptied due to the ugly scenes, VAR Paolo Vieri went about carrying out the obligatory offside checks on Medina's equaliser, only to come to the conclusion that the Boca Juniors midfielder was indeed offside.
But the news did not filter through for 90 minutes after the game's suspension, which therefore led to many believing it had taken so long to come to a decision over the goal.
It is now believed that the checks would have been undertaken and reached a conclusion instantly - thanks to semi-automated offside technology - and the decision was delayed due to fears over further crowd trouble.
Reports from ESPN suggest that the organisers may have felt disallowing the goal when emotions were already clearly at a high, adding further fuel to the fire may make things more difficult for stadium staff.
The game eventually resumed at around 7pm local time, effectively behind closed doors after two hours and Nyberg officially scrubbed off the goal, with Vieri finding that Medina was in front of the last defender when Nicolas Otamendi's shot came in and deflected off the bar, via the goalkeeper, making him offside.
The offside decision was made official almost two hours after the goal was scored
The referee ruled out Argentina's equalising goal for offside when the match had resumed
Objects were thrown from the stands after Argentina scored a late equaliser in Saint-Etienne
Riot police were pictured after Moroccan fans invaded the pitch after Argentina's last goal
It was a game that was full of talking points, not least the time added on and the stats around actual gameplay time in the match.
The 15 minutes added on sounds excessive at first glance, however in the 110 minutes and 29 seconds of the game, ESPN finds that the ball was in play for less than half of that - 54 minutes and 27 seconds.
The second half in particular, which lasted 65 minutes, only saw 26 minutes and five seconds of football played.
FIFA have been approached for comment by ESPN.
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