France complain about World Cup final but were lucky against England and Morocco – Fans

17:06 WAT 25/12/2022

The officials stood by their decisions in the highly-charged game that was ultimately decided by spot-kicks

Fans have claimed France were lucky to reach the final after so-called "controversial" decisions against England and Morocco in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals respectively.

After seeing off the Three Lions 2-1, Les Bleus faced the Atlas Lions and, courtesy of a 2-0 win, progressed to the final, where they were defeated by Argentina on penalties. Both Morocco and England felt they were not awarded deserved penalties.

Part of the French complaints revolves around officiating of the final match against the South Americans. Some French fans called for a replay of the match. This was mainly due to Messi scoring and making it 3-2 in extra time before Kylian Mbappe's second penalty made it 3-3 and pushed the contest to post-match shootouts.

VAR official Tomasz Kwiatkowski defended their stand, and then fans also felt the referees were on point regarding numerous close calls. Szymon Marciniak – the main referee for the game – also explained his decision to allow Messi’s goal to stand.

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Marciniak the best referee?

He was the best referee, his decisions were very much on point - Meluse Masukume
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Refees should be heard

I actually love this. Give the referees a platform to come out and defend their decisions. Else it would be a one-sided judgement, which in most cases hardly favours them - Ahmed Yahaya
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Referee did a fantastic job

Every neutral will recognize that the referee actually did a fantastic job - Shacko
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France should accept defeat

The celebrations from Martinez maybe, but to point fingers at the match official is just absurd. Take the loss and come back again - Emmanuel Alonge
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It is human nature to complain

Well done Messi, congratulations to Argentina, but trust me, man, it's just human nature to complain.
If France had won, Argentina would have found something to complain about too. Time will take care of these things - Baye
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Should we revisit France vs England?

If it's complaining time. Should we revisit France vs England semi-final? - Alpacino
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Three extra minutes?

The only thing the referee did wrong in my eyes was the extra time he gave after the 120 minutes were completed; the extra three minutes were unnecessary, and it was that time Emiliano Martinez made his last-minute save.
Other than the extra three minutes after the 120 minutes, everything was perfect - Korede Ajibola
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Messi deserved World Cup trophy

France complain about the World cup final to be replayed, but they were too lucky to reach final after they robbed England and Morocco with clean penalties so stop crying, this Cup is already in Argentina not in Paris. The GOAT [Lionel Messi] deserved to win this trophy - Asad Max
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Outstanding Marciniak

We are always quick to criticize referees, but let's take a moment and appreciate referee Szymon Marciniak, who was outstanding in the World Cup final last night.
He didn't need VAR intervention for the three big penalty calls and perfectly spotted Marcus Thuram's dive in real-time. - @Aadozo