World Cup nation lodge official complaint after Lionel Messi incident

Algeria have complained to FIFA alleging poor refereeing in their World Cup opener against Argentina.

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as Argentina ran out 3-0 winners in Group J and the Algerians were not happy with the 2022 World Cup-winning captain in particular.

Messi’s hat-trick took him level with Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 World Cup goalsAFP

Messi stood on the calf of Algeria defender Aissa Mandi during the game in Kansas City.

But the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, playing at his record-equalling sixth World Cup, escaped the incident without a yellow card.

Messi’s first goal sent Argentina in 1-0 up at half-time before he added a second-half brace to make sure of victory.

Lionel Scaloni’s side are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy since Brazil in 1962.

But the three-time world champions might count themselves lucky to have Messi available for their next group game against Austria on Monday.

The same could be said of Alexis Mac Allister after the Liverpool midfielder got away with an elbow on midfielder Ibrahim Maza.

Poland’s Szymon Marciniak was the man in the middle, having previously refereed Argentina’s thrilling win over France in the 2022 World Cup final.

Marciniak is widely regarded as one of the best officials around, but Algeria were not happy with the way he oversaw their defeat.

The African country’s FA are said to have written a letter of complaint to FIFA’s refereeing commission.

And they weren’t the only ones with a referee-related gripe – South Africa boss Hugo Broos weighed in after seeing one of his players, Themba Zwane, dismissed for a similar act to Messi’s in their tournament-opening loss to co-hosts Mexico.

Themba Zwame was one of two South African players sent off against MexicoAFP

“When I see what happened with Messi, I don’t agree,” fumed Broos, “Certainly not, not with what happened to my player.

“When you see the situation, the Mexican player blocked my player, and Themba tried to get over him, and he puts his arm over his shoulder. That’s all he does.

“And you ⁠get a red card for that and then a three-game suspension? Sorry, but this is much, much, much too severe.

“I don’t want that Messi gets a red card, because a player of that quality has ⁠to be on the pitch as you saw [against Algeria], but what was the difference between that and Zwane?”

Algeria continue their campaign against World Cup debutants Jordan in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The Fennecs are aiming to make it to the knockout stage of the tournament for just the second time, having reached the last 16 back in 2014.