Belgium coach Marc Wilmots said in Brasilia on Saturday that Italian referee Nicola Rizzou had gone easy on Lionel Messi during the their FIFA World Cup 2014 quarter-final clash against Argentina. The South Americans ousted the Europeans 1-0 to advance to the semisemi-finals for the first time in 24 years. Gonzalo Higuain scored the winner in the eighth minute.
Wilmots told the post-game media conference: “I don’t want to be a cry baby, but every time there is a little foul it was always in favour of Argentina. Every time something happened with Messi, the referee gave him a free kick.”
“I notice he made three fouls and no yellow card; we made one foul and one yellow card,” Wilmots added, reports Xinhua.
Higuain’s goal came when Belgium centre-back and captain Vincent Kompany was caught out of position.
“We make a small, small mistake — Vincent comes out of position and they score,” said Wilmots, adding, “We were not impressed by the Argentinians. They were just an ordinary team. They took 30 seconds to take a throw-in and the referee didn’t do anything.”
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