Croatia coach Mario Mandzukic was sent off in the aftermath of the penalty which gifted Argentina the lead in the World Cup semi final.
The beaten finalists from 2018 came into the clash with Argentina on the back of knocking out Brazil on penalties. But hopes of taking the other South American powerhouse into deep waters took an early hit when Argentina were awarded a first-half spot kick.
The incident occurred when Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez found a way to get behind the Croatia defence and was fouled by goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Despite replays showing the referee had no choice but to penalise the keeper, his team-mates angrily protested the decision.
Mateo Kovacic was cautioned immediately after, with the Croatia bench continuing the debate on the touchline. Following the bust-up FIFA’s official data platform confirmed that former striker Mandzukic had been dismissed.
Mandzukic was one of the stars of Croatia’s run to the 2018 final, but retired from professional football in August of last year. He has since taken up a position in Zlatko Dalic’s coaching staff for the tournament in Qatar. And while his absence on the field has been regularly cited throughout Croatia's unlikely run to the last four, he still managed to make an impact off it.
ITV pundit Gary Neville had some sympathy for the former striker, believing that Croatia were harshly done by. Asked if he thought the referee was correct, Neville said: "No, not at all. We’re right above it here, this angle is a little further away but the ‘keeper comes out, he basically just makes a movement to his right, stops himself before the actual shot is about to be taken and Álvarez just runs into him and takes his leg away.
"This is not a penalty. What else can he do? He has to make that motion to try and save the ball, he plants his feet. If he’d carried on running out and taken out Álvarez then fair enough, but he stops before it and I don’t know if that’s a penalty."
Lionel Messi blocked out the noise before taking his penalty, emphatically firing into the top corner to open the scoring. His goal, the 11th he has scored in World Cup finals, saw him eclipse Gabriel Batistuta to become Argentina’s leading scorer in the tournament.
And one quickly became two for Argentina when Alvarez scored a wonderful individual goal to give them a commanding lead at the Lusail Stadium.
Argentina earned themselves a place in the last four after a highly contentious clash with Netherlands. Messi was unusually angry following their penalty shootout victory, engaging in a war of words with Louis van Gaal and Edgar Davids. That hostility continued after the final whistle when he called Netherlands hero Wout Weghorst "a fool" during his post-match media commitments.
Nevertheless, progression was all that mattered for Messi as he goes in search of his first ever World Cup crown. In what will likely be his last tournament, the Paris Saint-Germain forward has been on a one-man mission to drag Lionel Scaloni's side into the latter stages.
