Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic has told Sportske Novosti that he was fuming with the performance of the referee in last night’s World Cup semi-final.
Croatia were humbled 3-0 by a dominant Argentina side, led by Lionel Messi fuelled by the prospect of being victorious in his final ever World Cup.
It was a particularly difficult evening for Josko Gvardiol, who has been strongly linked to a move to Stamford Bridge.
Messi’s brilliance certainly came at the expense of him, particularly in the build-up for the third goal.
Kovacic meanwhile can keep his head held high, following a sensational display in the face of Argentine dominance.
Kovacic criticises referee
Despite this, he feels like his country got no help from the match official Daniele Orsato in their hopes to advance to back-to-back World Cup finals.
He said: “It’s hard for me to comment at all, I don’t know what to say. We did our best, if we could have done better – we could. We were beaten by a penalty, but what’s there is. We wanted to enter the final, but we will fight for third place. Both situations are unbelievable to me – first that it was not a corner, and then a penalty… I never commented on the referees, but these are cardinal mistakes and it cost us.
“We knew they were aggressive, that they were good and that they had Messi. Today he was phenomenal, he should be congratulated. However, we fought, and we were awarded that ridiculous penalty. Nothing, we need to gather our strength now and fight for that third place.”
Kovacic’s performances at this World Cup have shown that he will certainly be a key player for Chelsea when he eventually returns from the tournament.
However, he will likely not be available for the first few league games following the break, given his deep run in the tournament which isn’t quite over yet.
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