Teammate Paul Wanner criticizes the arbitration: 'Only after seventy minutes did they get the first yellow card'

Paul Wanner was allowed to start for Austria for the first time from the opening kickoff during a World Cup match on Monday evening. Wanner and company played the second group-stage match of the 2026 World Cup against reigning world champions Argentina.

In the end, thanks to two goals by Lionel Messi, the Argentines were too strong for the Alpine side, winning 2-0. In the beginning of the match, Messi missed a penalty.

Where he was eventually substituted in the 68th minute for good old Marko Arnautovic, former player of FC Twente, in the pursuit of the equaliser. This did not ultimately happen and in the 95th minute Argentina finally said goodbye to Austria.

Afterwards, defender and midfielder Konrad Laimer was not pleased with the refereeing, which did not show its first yellow card until the 76th minute to an Argentine player (Facundo Medina). ''We had good spells with the ball, but in the end a match is decided by the small things. I don't know how many fouls they made, but it felt like they could make 700 of them without being punished. Only after seventy minutes did they get the first yellow card,'' Laimer said after the match to the media outlet Sport1.

Yet the Austrian does not want to talk too much about the officiating. ''For some reason, nowadays no yellow cards are being shown. I know I shouldn't worry about it, because it makes no difference. It does make things difficult. We of course didn't play perfectly ourselves either. If you give away the ball unnecessarily, they are incredibly dangerous on the counter. If Lionel Messi gets the ball, he already knows what he should do with it. He is very, very good at that,'' said Laimer.