Lionel Messi turned back the clock on Tuesday night as the 38-year-old legend was dominant on the pitch against Algeria, scoring all three of Argentina’s goals for his first World Cup hat trick. Messi hit the back of the net in the 17th, 60th, and 78th minute to lead his country to a 3-0 win over Algeria. However, there’s a fair argument that two of these goals never should have happened, because Messi should have been given a red card in the first half.
This was due to a horrific challenge on Algerian defender Aissa Mandi, in which Messi was jostled off the ball and responded by stepping on Mandi’s calf, causing him to collapse to the ground.
Messi threw up his arms as if to say, “I didn’t do anything,” but the proof is obvious. This absolutely fits the rubric for a red card, with the calf stomp not being anything close to an accidental challenge. Messi wasn’t going for the ball, and it could have caused serious damage to Mandi.
It’s not just fans who are crying foul either, with analysts and former referees saying that Messi should have been given a red card for the challenge.
“For me, that is a red card. We have various examples from the Bundesliga where that was punished with a red. By the letter of the law, that is a red. If I had seen it like that on the pitch, I would have shown red. If the referee had shown red, it definitely would not have been overturned.”
Instead, match referee Szymon Marciniak didn’t award either a red OR yellow, instead opting give Messi a warning. The stunning incident was compounded by the fact that there was no VAR intervention, raising questions why there’s video review in the first place if there won’t be a review on such a clear and obvious foul.
Argentina dodged a bullet by Messi avoiding the card. The team would have been without their best player in their toughest Group J match had he been sent off, with Argentina set to play Austria in Dallas on Monday. Whether this was an obvious blunder or beneficial refereeing is being debated on social media, and this video really doesn’t help assuage fears that FIFA is intentionally setting up another Messi cup run..
