outlander

So you want players to dive and cheat? It's really weird how people say it's absolutely fine to do whatever is needed for the win. They immediately lose this sentiment as soon as their tеam gets cheated by an opponent.

No. Ref ignored it. He really should have been off. And answering the original question: of course, such behaviour should be punished. It's like asking if diving should be punished.

What? How is it not? He clearly intentionally passed it back with a leg.

Surely it's a backpass. But it's Argentina...

on goal... of the team where Messi plays.

What is the relevance betweent he ball movement direction and offside rule?

Hahaha. That's a foul to Argentina. They don't even want to hide it that the ref is going to cheat Argentina to a title here.

The contact was between 2 Di Maria legs. Such a joke if anyone thinks it's a penalty

The stories are that they left him go not because he didn't watch football but because of an argument with the coach, which is very different. We don't know the story. But it could easily be that there was no real issue but a coach, instead of ignoring it, decided to mock him about it and then it escalated.

But it's not possible at all. Players will be banned by FIFA. At least a number of people told so, when there was a discussion about the possibility of players boycotting the tournament.

What's the problem with ignoring it? Surely, it will also harm his (and so the team's) spirit if you make him do something he really doesn't. And surely it shouldn't bother the rest if he didn't want to watch football with them. Like in families, if my wife wants to watch a movie on TV and I want to play a game on a PC, it doesn't make our "team spirit" worse.

As I said, I personally agree. And for me it was a foul against the goalkeeper yesterday. He was standing still (unlike Morrocan player here even) and Alvarez ran into him. Yet, somehow it is deemed that the player, who stayed still and was hit is considered to be fouling. That's awful application of the rules and yet another example of how football is behind many other sports. Still, it could never be a penalty today there. That's not how they apply the rules in football.

French player has the ball here. So, it is actually a foul against him. Sinilar to how it was a penalty to Argentina yesterday when Alvarez hit Croatian goalkeeper but got a penalty. That's consistently how the rules are applied. I personally don't like it but it quite consistent. Should not have been a yellow card here for sure though.

Is VAR giving him hints of previous errors, so he decided to even it out?

France actually beats strong opponents though. In 2018 they defeated Belgium and Argentina. People praise here great achievements under Southgate but how many times did they defeat strong teams in the play-offs in the last 2 WCs and Euros? Germany arguably. Not sure if they were not considered massive underdogs back then. And lost to Belgium, Italy and now France. And a loss against Croatia obviously. Not sure if that is such a great achievement overall on the balance of those results. England was effective against weaker teams during that period. That's true but not more than that.