Lionel Messi made a big record in World Cup history against Austria, but controversy arose over an incident before the goal. Watch the video and know the whole matter.
Lionel Messi FIFA World Cup Record Controversy: Lionel Messi, known as the ‘God’ of football, did what every footballer dreams of doing on the field of Dallas on Tuesday night. He broke the years-old record of the great German striker Miroslav Klose and took the all-time record of scoring the most goals (Most World Cup Goals) in FIFA World Cup history. But, the celebration of this historic 2-0 victory of Argentina and this great record of Messi could not last even for 10 minutes. One such video went viral on social media, which brought this entire record into controversy. Fans and football lovers claim that ‘this goal should have been disallowed.’ Let us know what happened on the field just 5 seconds before Messi’s historic 17th goal, which divided the entire football world into two groups and created an uproar.
What happened just 5 seconds before Messi’s goal?
The matter pertains to the first half of the high-voltage Group J match played between Argentina and Austria. Messi had missed a penalty at the beginning of the match, which boosted the Austrian team’s morale. Then Argentina launched an aggressive counter-attack. But just before the ball could reach Messi, Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister in midfield hit Austria’s midfielder Xaver Schlager from behind while trying to snatch the ball. Replays clearly showed that McAllister’s foot did not touch the ball but directly on the player. Schlager fell on the field in pain. The Austrian players kept appealing for the foul, but the referee signaled for play to continue. Taking advantage of this, Argentina took the ball forward and Lionel Messi scored his 17th World Cup goal with brilliant finishing without making any mistake.
Fans got angry after seeing the video
As soon as the video of the incident went viral on social media, football fans started raising questions on the role of VAR. Many users said that a foul was committed before Messi’s goal and the referee should have stopped the game. On the other hand, some fans defended the officials and said that this was not a case of VAR intervention. This is why this decision became one of the biggest debates on the internet.
Watch viral video here
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Veteran goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel furious
There was anger on social media when VAR (Video Assistant Referee) remained calm after this decision. Manchester United and Denmark’s legendary former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel gave a class to the referee during the live broadcast. Schmeichel said, ‘I don’t understand how VAR ignored this foul? The play should have been stopped long before the ball reached Messi. Injustice has been done to Austria. On the other hand, some analysts believed that the collision was not serious enough for the VAR referee to intervene to change his decision.
Do Argentina and Messi get ‘special treatment’?
This controversy has become bigger because this is the second consecutive match when a controversial decision has been taken in favor of Argentina. Just before that, against Algeria (where Argentina won 3–0), Messi had made a dangerous tackle on the leg of Algerian captain Asa Mandi. Even then Messi was not shown any card, after which the Algerian Football Federation has also filed an official complaint with FIFA. Not only this, in the same match against Austria, another video of Lautaro Martinez is going viral, in which he is seen hitting Konrad Leimer, but the referee rejected the demand for red card there too. Critics directly allege that FIFA and officials are ‘favouring’ Messi and Argentina.
Amid controversies, Messi created two more big records
Even though there was a fight for this goal, King Messi did not learn to stop. In the last moments of the match (Stoppage Time), Messi scored his second and 18th goal of the World Cup and ensured Argentina’s 2-0 victory. With this Argentina has reached the knockout round. With this, Messi has now become the most successful player in World Cup history with 18 goals. After Just Fontaine and Jairzinho, Messi has become only the third player in World Cup history to score goals in 6 consecutive matches.