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Croatia manager hits out at ‘suspicious’ penalty decision against Argentina.
Zlatko Dalic, the manager of Croatia, has criticized the decision to award Argentina a penalty in their 3-0 defeat over La Albiceleste in Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal.
Argentina will now face either France or Morocco in the final on Sunday thanks to a brace from Julian Alvarez.
Alvarez, however, earned his side a penalty in the first half after making a quick move from back to front following a goal kick before recording a goal. The Dinamo Zagreb goalkeeper took him down while attempting to make a save when he attempted to lob the ball over Dominik Livakovic.
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A penalty kick was thus granted, and Lionel Messi expertly converted it.
In his post-game press conference, Dalic stated that he felt his team had been wronged twice before the opener.
“The first goal as very suspicious, to be honest. First. we had the situation with the corner. Apparently [Croatia 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,” he said.
Dalic, a legend in Croatia after leading them to the 2018 World Cup final, was then asked if he would be staying on as manager.
“I will continue,” he confirmed. “My contract is to 2024, after the European Champions and in six months we have the Nations League and we have World Cup qualifiers. My plan is to take Croatia to Euro 2024.”