An incredible ending to Argentina vs Morocco, with the Albiceleste’s equaliser cancelled two hours later | Paris 2024 Olympic Games

While Spain was up to its neck in water resolving its date with Uzbekistan, the first bizarre scene of the Games, and of football in general, was taking place in the Argentina-Morocco match played at the same time in Saint-Étienne. What seemed to have ended with a 2-2 after the Argentine equaliser in the 106th minute, it turned out that two hours later that goal was disallowed after the referee reviewed it on the VAR monitor with the stadium already empty.

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The 2011/12/13 season saw the 2012/13/14 season open to the public, with the 2012/13/15 season being the first of its kind in the history of football.

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Munir, Oussama El Azzouzi, Zakaria El Ouahdi, Mehdi Boukamir, Achraf Hakimi, Amir Richardson, Ilias Chakkour (Abde, min. 59), Eliesse Ben Seghir, Oussama Targhaline, Bilal El Khannous (Benjamin Bouchouari, min. 91) and Soufiane Rahimi

Goals 0-1 min. 47: Soufiane Rahimi. 0-2 min. 51: Soufiane Rahimi. 1-2 min. 68: Giuliano Simeone.

Referee Glenn Nyberg

Yellow cards Ilias Chakkour (min. 39), Bilal El Khannous (min. 47), Zakaria El Ouahdi (min. 61), Soufiane Rahimi (min. 69), Oussama Targhaline (min. 87), Munir (min. 88) and Marco Di Césare (min. 98)

The team coached by Javier Mascherano celebrated the equaliser 24 seconds after the 15 minutes that the referee had given for extra time had gone by. On the fourth rebound in the midst of the Argentine attack, Cristian Medina scored and tied the score at two. Or so it seemed. At the moment of the celebration, Moroccan fans invaded the pitch, according to the newspaper Oléand in an image broadcast by Eurosport you can also see a firecracker falling next to the Albiceleste bench.

At first, the match seemed to have ended 2-2. But no. It was only suspended by Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg, due to the incidents. The players of both teams retreated to the changing rooms. It remained for the VAR scanner to review the validity of the goal. And that happened two hours later, with the players of both teams back on the pitch and the stands of the Geoffroy-Guichard completely deserted.

With everyone on the pitch in silence, the team made the classic signal to go to the VAR monitor to check if everything had been correct in the equaliser or, as the game had already started to circulate, an offside had occurred. And so it was. An illegal position cancelled out Medina’s goal. The Swedish referee, as protocol dictates, announced it over the loudspeaker, although there was no one in the stands. Three more minutes were played to put the finishing touch to a bizarre scene caused by the incidents involving the African fans.

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