Brave Iran... unlucky, noble, brave, courageous, talented, determined and dignified Iran went down to a Messi goal almost at the end of the game, after holding the world's number 5, after having several clear chances and a penalty denied by a referee who appeared to be clearly compromised. Congratulations, Iran!
Argentina 1 Iran 0
Messi
Nobody who knows anything about football would deny that Iran was denied a penalty by a referee who is either biased, or incompetent. Milorad Mazic is his name, and he will live to the end of his days knowing he robbed Iran of a penalty. What a disgusting comment on football, what a disgusting comment on the quality of referees chosen to manage the games of the FIFA World Cup.
Milorad Mazic will without doubt be the reason why many people, including myself, give up believing in football as a sport and start moving to other modalities where the refereeing is transparent. If Mazic looks at the replay of that penalty and still says there wasn't one, then he needs to take his meds.
Match statistics
Argentina
Romero, Zabaleta, Rojo, Mascherano, Fernández, Garay, Gago, Messi, Agüero (Lavezzi), Higuaín (Palacio), Di María (Biglia)
Coach: Alejandro SABELLA
Yellow card:
Iran
Haghighi, Montazeri, Pooladi, Nekounam, Hosseini, Sadeqi, Shojaei (Heydari), Teymourian, Ghoochanneijhad, Hajsafi (Haghighi), Dejagah (Jahanbakhsh)
Coach: Carlos QUEIROZ
Yellow card: Nekounam, Shojaei
Ball possession: Argentina 77% Iran 23%
Shots/on target: Argentina 21/4 Iran 8/3
Corners: Argentina 10 Iran 6
Fouls committed: Argentina 7 Iran 14
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)