Argentina vs Saudi Arabia: the penalty on Otamendi that the VAR did not see and that could change the history of the match

victim of a Saudi Arabia intense, holding on to the plan he devised Herve Renard and with effectiveness as its main ally, the Argentina national team lost on their World Cup debut 2-1 after starting to win with a goal of Lionel Messi, to the surprise of locals and foreigners.

However, without detracting from what the Arab team did, which was very good, it is also fair to say that those of Lionel Scaloni they deserved to have managed to stay with the win, even if the collective performance that was expected did not materialize.

Is that there were three offside goals, of those that only SAOT (semi-automatic offside technology) can see, two very clear in the feet of Messi and Nahuel Molina and a controversial penalty situation on Otamendi in which the VAR did not hesitate and upheld the main referee’s initial decision.

It happened in the 19th minute of the second half, with Arabia having the advantage on the scoreboard, when the Argentinian defender received a pass from Rodrigo De Paul from the right sector inside the rival area and receives a blow (not violent, but finally blow) from Yasir Al Shahrani.

The chief judge of the match, Slavko Vincic, from Slovenia, he didn’t think it was to sanction a penalty and from the VAR they didn’t even call him to review that action. At least controversial.

The move led to an Otamendi pass towards the center of the box that found Molina unmarked on the edge of the small area, Argentina’s clearest in the whole game, but the Atlético Madrid winger incorrectly called and failed to equalize. . The spotlight went there and it didn’t fall on the non-sanctioned penalty seconds earlier.

Otamendi, still with the VAR against

If this Tuesday was the most painful defeat of the Scaloni cycle, due to the impact generated by the result compared to the expectations that existed in the previous one, the second hardest was that of the semifinals of the America’s Cup 2019 against Brazil, who had Nicholas Otamendi still the protagonist of an arbitration controversy. And coincidentally, the last game Scaloni’s team lost until this morning.

In reality what happened that day at Mineirāo was not controversial, but rather a gross mistake by the Ecuadorian referee Roddy Zambrano. There was no question. The Arthur’s brutal elbow on Otamendi should have been sanctioned with penalty and expulsion for the Brazilian midfielder.

The rest of the story, already known. Brazil won 2-0, went to the final, was champion after defeating the Peruvian team of Ricardo Gareca and Argentina managed to take revenge two years later, still in Brazilian territory, lifting the first title in 28 years.

The positive, in this case, is that we won’t have to wait long to take revenge. With no time for regrets, the Scaloneta will compete with Mexico in four days, looking for three points and proving that this defeat was a blow, but not a knockout pineapple.