The Croatian press today blamed Italian referee Daniele Orsato and FIFA for Croatia’s 3-0 defeat by Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar, although it also acknowledged that Albiceleste played better.
“Luka Modric embarrassed by arbitration work: Orsato is one of the worst, a catastrophe! The penalty has destroyed us!”, echoing the words of the Croatian team captain, the newspaper Vesernje list.
“The Croatian team has lost 3-0 to Argentina, but who knows what would have happened if the Italian referee Daniele Orsato had not made a serious mistake when awarding the penalty (…) to Gauchos”, writes the portal.
Another portal, Jutarnji, admits that “Argentina has been better”, but insists: “Look how FIFA favors Messi, and do you know who has been the VAR referee?”
“We will ask ourselves a thousand times if it had to end like this, if the concentration in the semi-finals was to have the worst right, if Orsetto, like his compatriot Massimiliano Irati (at the 2018 World Cup) in Moscow, had been our executioner by chance is )”, indicates the newspaper.
“Once again Irati was the one with VAR and he didn’t say anything about the penalty for Argentina, VAR will say nothing in our favor,” he says.
He assures that FIFA favors Messi and this is “demonstrated by the fact that he was named man of the match, although Alvarez scored two goals.”
“Nothing has been in our favor. Neither the conditions, nor, unfortunately, not the game of Ardentes, the worst in this tournament, because, whatever it was, we conceded goals that we should not have was needed and we have to accept it.” ,” says Jutranji.
The portal also included a message of support for Ardentes from tennis player Novak Djokovic, “one of the best of all time”, who congratulated Dejan Lovren and Luka Modric, and “the whole team for another great championship”.
The portal states that despite the defeat, thousands of fans following the game on large screens in Zagreb’s squares “wiped away their tears and organized a party.”
“What if they had lived?” asks a title, noting that it was celebrated with firecrackers, fireworks and sparklers.
“Those guys are our heroes. What they have done is a great success for all Croatians and all Croatian players in the world. We should be grateful for everything they have done,” Croatian football expert Andrej Panadić told Vesernji. .
The Index Portal states that the defeat against Argentina was Croatia’s worst in 29 World Cup matches since 1998, as it was the first time they had lost by a three-goal margin.
Croatia will fight for the third place after losing the match played between France and Morocco tonight.
