Argentina/Croatia: Modric Blames Semi-Final Loss On Referee

Croatia captain, Luka Modric has blamed their loss to Argentina in the Qatar 2022 World Cup semi-final on the match official.

Gatekeepers News reports that Argentina had defeated Croatia 3-0 in their semi-final clash on Tuesday night, knocking them off the opportunity of a final after reaching the semifinals for the second successive World Cup.

The 37-year-old alleged that Italian referee Daniele Orsato was the cause of his nation’s defeat at the Lusail Stadium, calling his performance a “disaster”.

In the clash against Croatia, Orsato, who officiated the second Argentina match at the tournament awarded the Albiceleste a first-half penalty after Dominik Livakovic’s foul on Julian Alvarez, which Leo Messi converted to give the South American side a 1-0 lead.

Following this, Alvarez’s brace secured Lionel Scaloni’s progress to the final.

After the game, Modric said, “Argentina was a fair winner of the match, they were better, they deserved to win, but these things have to be mentioned, I generally don’t do them, but today they have to be done.

”I don’t like to talk about referees, but this is one of the worst. I don’t have a good memory of [Orsato], he’s a disaster. For me, it wasn’t a penalty.”

The Croatia captain added, ”Despite this, I don’t want to detract from Argentina. The penalty killed us. We have to recover for third place and win that match.”

Nevertheless, Modric wished Messi well as the Argentina captain has one final chance to get his hands on the World Cup in Sunday’s final at the Lusail Stadium.

He said, ”Congratulations, and I wish good luck in the final to Messi. He is having an amazing tournament and he’s showing his greatness and quality.”