Why was Argentina’s 2-2 equalizer disallowed?

U23 Argentina capped off 90 minutes of intense pursuit against U23 Morocco with a last-minute goal from Christian Medina. As the final whistle blew, both teams left the field, initially accepting a 1-1 draw.

The broadcast from Stade Geoffroy-Guichard was cut, shifting to the Egypt vs. Dominican Republic match, scheduled to start at 22:00 (Vietnam time).

However, about an hour and 20 minutes later, both Argentine and Moroccan players were summoned back to the pitch by the organizers to hear the final ruling from referee Glenn Nyberg regarding the controversial late goal.

After reviewing the VAR footage, Nyberg ruled that Medina’s goal would not stand due to an offside infringement.

In the 90+16th minute, Nicolas Otamendi’s attempt hit the crossbar, with the rebound falling to Bruno Amione, who also struck the woodwork. Medina then followed up with a header that appeared to score for Argentina.

The semi-automatic offside technology identified that Bruno Amione’s toe was slightly ahead of the last Moroccan defender, leading to the disallowing of the goal due to offside.

According to The Athletic, the Argentine players were informed before returning to the field to hear Nyberg’s final decision.

At the press conference, Argentina’s coach, Javier Mascherano, criticized the handling of the situation: “I still cannot make sense of what happened. We waited in the locker room for an hour and a half, and the organizers did not provide any updates. The Moroccan captain didn’t want to continue, and neither did we. Their fans threw bottles at our players. The stadium felt like a circus last night. I don’t understand why it took an hour and 20 minutes to review a single play.”

Despite the victory, Moroccan fans left a negative impression during their debut. They threw various objects onto the pitch, targeting Argentine players, and their aggressive behavior frequently interrupted the match.

U23 Morocco eventually won 2-1 after a 4-hour ordeal, temporarily sharing the top spot in Group A with U23 Iraq, who also secured a 2-1 victory against Ukraine.

For Argentina, this marks their third consecutive Olympic Games beginning with a defeat, following losses of 0-2 to Portugal (Rio 2016) and 0-2 to Australia (Tokyo 2021).

In both previous tournaments, Albiceleste was eliminated at the group stage.