Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic has described the first goal his side conceded in their World Cup semi-final defeat against Argentina as “very suspicious”.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the three-goal victory by netting from the penalty spot to become Argentina’s record World Cup scorer but the decision to award the spot kick proved to be highly contentious among ITV Sport’s pundit panel for the match.
The penalty was awarded after Julian Alvarez collided with Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic inside the area. Alvarez then added a second soon after and the Manchester City striker grabbed the third from a close-range finish midway through the second half after a magical Messi assist.
Yet Croatia boss Dalic was forced to lament the nature of his side conceded the opener after dominating possession in the early stages against the South American champions. Dalic explained: “We played well for half an hour but we were not specific in our actions. We conceded a goal which was very suspicious.
“First the situation for the corner — according to the reaction of my players, the referee didn’t call it. Then the situation with the penalty. It was a little bit too cheap and too easy, to be honest. Then we tried to go back and we conceded a second goal. We had ball possession but we made no specific opportunities.”
He added: “They had control over us and the ball possession was not in our hands. We had a corner that was called by the referee and then a counter-attack where our goalkeeper did what he did and these new rules…”
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Dalic continued: “Otherwise I will not say that we will be objecting to the referees (but) I think the first goal took the match in a different direction.”
However, the Croatia boss had no complaints about his own side’s efforts after their fine World Cup campaign came to an end: “I can't blame my boys for anything. We were in control for the first half hour, but then we conceded a goal after that penalty.
“Sometimes luck favours you, sometimes it comes back to you in a different way. From what I understand, the boys protested against the corner. We conceded a goal from that action. But we lost the game and I have nothing to complain about.”
Unsurprisingly, Dalic had no shortage of words for Messi’s majestic performance after the superstar scored and added another assist to his tally at the tournament. The Croatia boss said: “Well, not much needs to be said about Messi’s qualities. In the past 15 years he’s probably the best player in the world.
“He was good and dangerous and makes a difference in the Argentina team. He has the explosivity and technique at a very high performance and it’s the true Messi we expected to see.”
He continued: “Argentina has an excellent team and Messi being the player of such quality and motive and to have 50,000 supporters… they play as they best find it fit. They had four midfielders and closed the middle. Messi can take one step further and make the difference, which he did for the third goal.”
