All with controversy: the penalties that they gave to Argentina in Qatar 2022 and the historical record that lurks

Controversy is always impregnated in any football competition and the World Cup is no exception. In that sense, Argentinawith controversy and without it, has already reached the end of Qatar 2022being the team with the most penalties in favor in the tournament, a fact that does not lose importance.

And it is that, from the beginning, a controversial penalty charged in his favor set the tone for what was to happen in the rest of the tournament. In his debut against Saudi Arabia, a hold on Leandro Paredes in the area during a corner kick led to a dubious penalty in favor of the ‘Albiceleste’, ratified by VAR, which Lionel Messi later converted.

This also happened in the match against Poland. The referee understood that goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny fouled Messi in a dispute over the ball and, after consulting VAR, confirmed that decision. Subsequently, the Argentine ’10’ could not beat the Polish goalkeeper from 11 steps.

Already in the quarterfinals, the ‘albiceleste’ had to face the Netherlands and again moved the marker through their favorite way: the penalty spot. Marcos Acuña suffered an alleged foul by Dumfries and the judge decided to award a penalty that once again generated controversy. For many, it shouldn’t have been whistled, but that’s how it was and Messi didn’t fail.

Now, against Croatia, the story has continued the same. To open the scoring, Argentina had to create a new penalty. Julián Álvarez, in his attempt to define, bumped into goalkeeper Dominik Livaković’s leg inside the area and referee Daniele Orsato interpreted this as an offence, something many experts do not agree on, not even Juan Pablo Varsky himself.

Be that as it may, Orsato remained firm in his decision and, from the 11 steps, Lionel Messi defined in a great way to celebrate the 1-0, which in the end ended up being a favorable 3-0.

With that, Argentina already registers four penalties in favor in six matches played in Qatar 2022being the team that has been favored the most with this route in this edition… And the final is still missing.

If the ‘albiceleste’ again generate a penalty in their favor in the definition of the title, they will become the first squad to achieve five penalties in the same World Cup. According to MisterChip, like Argentina in Qatar 2022, only Portugal in 1966 and the Netherlands in 1978 achieved the same number of maximum penalties in their favor in a World Cup.