Wayne Rooney claims Argentina 'deserved' World Cup final defeat after 'disgusting' full-time scenes | OneFootball

The World Cup final ended on a sour note as fights broke out between players

Wayne Rooney claimed that Enzo Fernandez and Argentina “deserved” to lose the World Cup final after chaos ensued at the full-time whistle in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Spain secured a second world title at the MetLife Stadium as Ferran Torres struck an extra-time winner.

Ugly scenes broke out as referee Slavko Vincic blew his whistle for the last time, as the Spanish players celebrated, but the frustrated Argentinians let their tempers get the better of them.

It all started when Rodri, the Manchester City man, was squared up to by Nahuel Molina, the Argentine right-back, before Leandro Paredes sought to take swings at both Eric Garcia and Gavi.

The midfielder wrested the Spaniard to the ground, grabbing him by the shirt in a nasty turn of events. He was shown a straight red card after the full-time whistle.

He had already been shown a yellow card for dissent earlier in the match.

Scrap: Leandro Paredes and Gavi

AFP/Getty

In the BBC studio afterwards, former England striker Rooney said that Argentina’s post-match behaviour was unsurprising.

“We’ve seen it with Argentina before,” he said.

“It’s not the reaction you want. We saw it after knocking England out in the last round as well. Enzo Fernandez has got what he deserves. It’s disappointing. That’s just sad.

!”If you lose a game, get out of there. That’s just not good enough. It’s a reaction to them being outplayed, outfought, outthought. They resort to that at the end. It’s sad.”

Fellow pundit and ex-England goalkeeper Joe Hart concurred.

“It’s disgusting,” he said.

“There was one man on the pitch who did have class and it was Lionel Messi. He shook hands with every one of the Spanish players. The game is done. They can have absolutely no complaints about what happened today. Disgusting behaviour.

“Rodri didn’t need to get in their faces, but when you’ve been wound up for 120 minutes, and you’ve felt wronged with the referee on your back, you’ve got that win, the referee has blown his whistle, leave it.”

Scuffle: Spain and Argentina players square off

PA

Micah Richards singled out Paredes as a key instigator in the chaos.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said.

“They know Spain are a better team on the ball, but what could they do to disrupt them off the ball? They were on the cusp every single time. Seeing that sort of stuff after the game has been played and someone has been crowned world champions is not good enough.

“It’s embarrassing. Paredes doesn’t need to do that. He’s better than that. He doesn’t stop there. He keeps going and going.”