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Croatia's coach Zlatko Dalic has questioned the refereeing decision that led to Croatia losing their semifinal against Argentina
Speaking after Croatia got knocked out of the 2022 World Cup final by Argentina, Croat manager Zlatko Dalic bemoaned his team's bad luck against Argentina and the referee's suspicious decision to award the South Americans a penalty in the 34th minute.
The coach criticised referee Daniele Orsato for awarding a penalty after Argentina's Julian Alvarez appeared to accidentally collide with Croatia's goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic, in the penalty area.
The penalty was converted by Argentina's captain, Lionel Messi, and the goal changed the entire complexion of the game as Croatia, who had been dominating the match, could no longer find the extra gear to challenge Argentina.
"The first goal was very suspicious"
Dalic said he found the entire situation leading up to the penalty a bit strange and believes Croatia should have had a corner leading up to the goal, and that the penalty was a soft one.
He said, “The first goal was very suspicious, to be honest.
"First, we had the situation with the corner. Apparently [we should have had] a corner, according to the reaction of our players.
“Then we had the situation with the penalty… It was a little bit too cheap and easy."
Croatia's effort not enough to stop brilliant Messi
Croatia's World Cup journey came to an end in the semifinal after they failed to recover from the penalty and gave up two more goals to Alvarez in the 39th and 69th minutes of the 3-0 loss.
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