Four yellow cards. A red card. A penalty caused. This Monday evening, at the Stade de France, Greece tried everything to stop the offensive armada of the Blues. In a Group B match counting for qualifying for Euro 2024, Gustavo Poyet’s men finally cracked against Kylian Mbappé, author of his 40th goal in 70 caps. A new achievement allowing, moreover, the Bondynois to register his 54th achievement during the 2022-2023 financial year, club and selection combined, and thus to become the top French scorer over a season, ahead of Just Fontaine. An opposition which also marked the last match in the career of referee Mateu Lahoz.
Forgotten penalties for the Blues!
Designated on the whistle for this international meeting, the 46-year-old Spaniard also stood out for his last and not in the best way… From the 2nd minute of play, Kylian Mbappé tried to cut off a center from Kingsley Coman . Held back by the jersey, the tricolor striker collapsed in the Greek area but Lahoz did not flinch. Same story a few minutes later when on a scramble in the decisive zone, Théo Hernandez saw the ball bounce off the hand of a Greek defender. Impassive, the Spaniard then suffered the wrath of the Stade de France. Destabilized or just moved for his last appearance, the one who had drawn sixteen cards (including a red) during the quarter-final of the World Cup between the Netherlands and Argentina (2-2, 3-4 on pens) continued errors of judgement.
On a new cross to Mbappé, finally pushed with both hands in the back by his defender, the Spaniard was still unmoved (26th). And what about this new contentious situation just before the break. After a nice job in the Greek area, KM7 was still hit by a defender (41st). penalty? Always not. Worse still, Lahoz asked the French striker to get up and called him to order after challenges from the French captain. Something to annoy Didier Deschamps, present at the microphone of TF1 at the break. “There is not just one, but three or four situations that can be… But hey… As long as he does not whistle and he is not told that there is a manifest error… These are situations which could have been assessed differently. It was not the case”cursed the coach.
Too many games?
At the center of attention in the first act, Mateu Lahoz was not more inspired when he returned from the locker room. If he designated, this time, the penalty spot on a gross fault by Mavropanos, guilty of a kick in the head of Antoine Griezmann, the latter nevertheless escaped the red card… On the screens of the Stade de France, it was first marked: “VAR, penalty check”before seeing: “VAR, checking for a possible red card”. Yes, but now, after three long minutes of verification, the central defender of VfB Stuttgart quietly resumed his place in the Greek rearguard. Still absent when whistling a foul, however obvious, on Nkunku in added time, Lahoz also distinguished himself by slowing down the game a lot, while multiplying the unnecessary discussions with the 22 players. “He made a few mistakes, but we’re not going to blame him. I learned on the pitch that it was his last game so I’m very happy for him. We all have to congratulate him. The match passed, we won, we would have liked to score more goals, but the most important thing is that we took the three points.assured Ibrahima Konaté, after the victory of the Blues.
Relaunched on the subject at the final whistle, Didier Deschamps preferred, this time, to smile. “Random decisions? You’re nice saying random. It was the last match for Mr. Lahoz, a referee character and I have the impression that the VAR did not want to judge him for this last match, but hey, we are not going to argue.launched the strong man of the Blues on TF1. “I spoke with the referee after the match, not about this decision (the red card received by Mavropanos, editor’s note), but because it was his last match”, confided, for his part, Gustavo Poyet in a press conference. Totally overwhelmed by events, Mateu Lahoz finally, perhaps, needed to be talked about for his last career. Mission successful. One thing is certain, the one who has often been considered as one of the best referees on the continent took advantage to the end, as evidenced by the fourteen minutes of additional time offered by his fourth referee, raising – there too – many questions in the spans of the Stade de France.
