A massive controversy erupted as Moroccan fans invaded the pitch and threw water bottles at Argentina players during the Paris Olympics 2024 group stage football match at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in Saint-Etienne on Wednesday, July 24.
Argentina suffered a shocking 1-2 defeat at the hands of Morocco in the first round of their campaign at the Paris Olympics. What caught the most attention was not Argentina's defeat but the pitch invasion by Moroccan fans during the group stage encounter between the two teams.
The incident took place in the 90+16th minute of the match when Argentina scored the equalizer 2-2. Soon after, the match was halted as angry Morocco fans invaded the pitch, burst crackers and threw water bottles at Argentina players as they believe that certain decisions went against their team.
Argentina players had to walk back to the dressing room for the safety reasons. The incident resulted in the suspension of play, but soon the security guards cleared the pitch. After two hours, two teams returned to the pitch, the referee consulted the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and eventually ruled out the second goal scored by Argentina in the extra time as it was off-sided. The video of the entire incident went viral on social media.
Morocco were comfortably leading after Soufiane Rahimi scored two goals for the team in the 45+2 minutes and 51st minute, respectively. In the 68th minute, Giuliano Simeone netted a goal for the Argentina. In 90+16th minute, Cristian Medina scored a deep in injury time to salvage what it looked like a 2-2 draw.
However, goal was disallowed two hours after the resumption of play due to pitch invasion by angry Morocco fans, who threw bottles and smoke bombs at the Argentina players.
With a win over Argentina, Morocco are currently at the top of Group A table with three points. Argentina need to win their next two matches against Iraq and Ukraine in order to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics 2024 football tournament.
