Teammate Paul Wanner receives applause: “A clear infringement”

Paul Wanner on Monday evening made more than 68 minutes full on behalf of Austria against reigning world champions Argentina. The Austrians ultimately lost 2-0 to the Argentines after two goals by Lionel Messi and afterwards there was a lot of discussion and, in particular, frustration about the referee on duty.

Defender and midfielder Konrad Laimer voiced his frustration to the Sport1 outlet about the number of fouls Argentina committed without being shown a card. ''I don’t know how many fouls they made, but it felt like they could make as many as 700 without punishment. Only after seventy minutes did they receive their first yellow card,'' the FC Bayern Munich player said after the match.

There was a great deal of criticism from national team coach Ralf Rangnick and teammate Xavier Schlager as well regarding referee Amin Omar in relation to the first Argentinian goal. The latter was clearly taken down beforehand ahead of Messi’s 1-0, but both the official and the VAR saw no foul.

This to the frustration of Schlager. ''He knocked me completely off my feet. I had both legs in the air and fell onto the grass. I’m not known for going down often or getting free kicks often. For me, this was absolutely a clear infringement. The goal should not have counted,'' said the midfielder, full of frustration, to Austrian media.

Even national team coach Rangnick doesn’t understand the decision to let the first goal stand. "The VAR should have done the same as they did with the penalty for Argentina. If he had also looked at the footage here, then he would have seen what everyone at home can see: a clear foul on Schlager," the German coach said.

In addition, Manuel Gräfe, a former German referee and nowadays a referee expert for the German newspaper BILD, also found it to be an unmistakable infringement, as evidenced by his reply to a question on the social media platform X.