Argentina and Morocco were forced to resume their clash at the 2024 Olympic Games almost two hours after the match appeared to end.
The football tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games began on Wednesday, with Spain beating Uzbekistan 2-1 and Argentina drawing 2-2 with Morocco.
Argentina – whose squad includes 2024 Copa America winners Julian Alvarez, Nicolas Otamendi and Geronimo Rulli – were 2-0 down in the second half, but rescued a point with an equaliser in the 16th minute of injury time.
A frantic passage of play in the dying seconds saw the 2004 and 2008 gold medalists twice hit the crossbar before Cristian Medina headed home from close range.
Or so he thought. The 22-year-old midfielder and his teammates were pelted with bottles and cups thrown by Moroccan fans as they celebrated, before footage emerged showing Argentina’s stars being targeted with fireworks as they headed towards the tunnel.
Immediately after the game several Morocco fans invaded the pitch, leading to confusion over whether the full-time whistle had been blown or the match temporarily suspended.
Both sets of players then left the field and returned to the dressing rooms, but several reports claimed that the Argentina players did not know if the match had finished or not.
For a while, big screens inside the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard displayed a message that read: “Your session has been suspended, please make your way to the nearest exit.”
The final result was seemingly confirmed almost an hour later, but then the situation changed again.
Roughly 90 minutes after the players left the field, TyC Sports journalist Gaston Edul reported that the would-be equalising goal would be reviewed for a potential offside.
He posted on X: “This is the situation: The players go out to warm up. The referee is going to review the play in the VAR.
“If it is not a goal, three more minutes are played. If it’s a goal, it’s over. FIFA wanted to finish it and the referee wanted to review it.”
Almost two hours after the players left the field, the goal was chalked off after the referee and VAR ruled that Medina was fractionally offside.
The players returned to the field to warm-up to play three additional minutes of action in an empty stadium with Argentina 2-1 behind.
Morocco saw out the remaining three minutes to win 2-1, over four hours after the match first began.
Featured Image Credit: Getty & TyC Sports
Topics: Olympics, Football, Argentina, Morocco, VAR, Julian Alvarez