After the 1-0 defeat to Morocco, the Portuguese-Portuguese defender Pepe criticized the arbitration and said that there is an alleged favoring of Argentina in the World Cup.
“Of the 8 or 9 referees we had here today in the game, 5 are Argentine. I could be very wrong, but I have a lot of experience with this. I can say that they will give the title to Argentina.”
“In the first half, they went once and scored a goal. All the plays we wanted, they stopped the play and the referee didn’t bother the Moroccan players. The second half was more of the same. They came to waste time. Lots of fouls, the referee does not give yellow.”
“I have to say this. It is unacceptable for an Argentine referee to referee our game, after what Messi said yesterday [sexta]”, he added.
After Argentina’s victory over the Netherlands, the number 10 alviceleste asked FIFA to review the lineup of the referee of the match, the Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz, for the continuation of the Cup. “A lot of anger because, like I said, it wasn’t supposed to end like this [o jogo]🇧🇷 Fifa has to review this, they cannot put a referee like that for a game like that.”
Regarding the match, the defender said that Portugal was “always on top” and that he conceded an unexpected goal. “We are sad. We had the quality to win the world championship.”
Midfielder Bruno Fernandes continued in the same tone about the arbitration. “They wanted Portugal to leave right now, they did. It’s very strange that we have a referee who still has his national team in competition [Argentina] and not having Portuguese referees in the competition.”
“It is at least strange, because we have referees who referee the Champions League. If they have the quality and level to be in the Champions League, they also have the quality and level to be here”, he added.
“And these referees [da partida] they don’t whistle the Champions League, they’re not used to this type of game. And clearly tilting the field, because in the first half there is a clear penalty on top of me, without a doubt.”
The Portuguese coach, Fernando Santos, made only comments about the match itself. He said that the players worked a lot, but that they were not able to explore “everything that we wanted to do”.
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