📸 Ref expert calls for red! Should Messi's World Cup record count? | OneFootball

Nearly everything this morning revolves around Lionel Messi. With a hat-trick against Algeria, the Argentine megastar scored his 14th, 15th and 16th World Cup goals, drawing level with record holder Miroslav Klose.

But should it never have gotten that far? One moment from the match is currently causing a huge stir in the football world.

This is what happened: midway through the first half, with the score at 1:0, Messi became involved in a challenge with Algeria’s Aïssa Mandi, with his studs making fairly clear contact with the defender’s calf.

Referee Szymon Marciniak did penalize the foul, but showed neither a yellow nor a red card. The video assistant also did not intervene — wrongly so, in the opinion of former Bundesliga referee Patrick Ittrich.

Speaking on 'MagentaTV' a few hours later, the TV pundit explained: "There are three criteria for a red card. In this case, that means first: he has 0.0 chance of playing the ball. Second: the point of contact looks nasty. The only thing missing is the intensity."

Even so, according to Ittrich, this incident "meets two out of three criteria for a sending-off". His final conclusion was therefore: "For me, that is a red card. In the Bundesliga, we have often seen a red card given for that. From a rules perspective, a sending-off would have been appropriate."

So should Messi have been sent off in the first half — and therefore not have been allowed to break Klose’s record at all? What do you make of Ittrich’s comments? Let us know in the comments!

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 JUAN MABROMATA - AFP or licensors