France are demanding FIFA take action
France, you might assume, would be quite pleased at how the defence of their World Cup is going.
After being blighted with injuries to several key players in the buildup to Qatar, Didier Deschamps saw his side breeze into the knockouts with consecutive victories over Australia and Denmark.
And yes, they might have ended up losing to Tunisia on Wednesday, but that still wasn’t enough to prevent them from topping the group.
Despite this, it seems France aren’t happy at the controversial end to the game against the north African side – so much so, they’ve reportedly asked FIFA to step in and change the result.
With Tunisia leading through Whabi Khazri’s second-half strike, it seemed Les Bleus had drawn level at the death, courtesy of Antoine Griezmann’s goal deep into stoppage time.
VAR later ruled that Griezmann, despite not challenging for the ball, had been offside when the ball was initially floated into the Tunisian box and referee Matthew Conger chalked the goal off.
Should Antoine Griezmann's last-minute goal have stood? 🧐
The disallowed goal meant Tunisia recorded a memorable win over France despite going out of World Cup 🇹🇳#ITVFootball | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/cCHS17R5cO
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) November 30, 2022
Tunisia clung on for a famous victory – albeit one that wasn’t enough for them to qualify for the knockout stages.
The Sun, however, report that France have since complained that Tunisia had already restarted the game with a kick-off when Conger was alerted to the possibility of an offside.
Regulations state that once play has restarted after a stoppage, no decisions can be reversed – meaning Griezmann’s equaliser should, technically, have been permitted to stand after this happened.
France believe the result of the game should, therefore be amended to a 1-1 draw (which seems a bit pointless, but still).
The same report highlights how, should France’s demands be met, this wouldn’t be the first time a VAR-related decision has been changed after the full-time whistle, with Manchester United awarded a match-winning penalty against Brighton after the full-time whistle had been blown in a game in 2020.
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