Portugal players Pepe and Bruno Fernandes have refused to accept that they lost fairly to Morocco in yesterday’s Qatar 2022 World Cup quarter-final clash.
Morocco won the encounter 1-0 to become the first African team in World Cup history to reach the semi-finals of the competition.
As the match wore on and Portugal were unable to cancel out Youssef En-Nesyri’s 42nd-minute strike, the Europeans resorted to falling over in the box and demanding penalties from the Argentine referee Facundo Tello.
Despite replays showing that the referee was right not to give Portugal any penalties and the red card given to Walid Cheddira for two bookings, Portugal were still not happy with the officiating.
Indeed, 39-year-old Pepe insinuated that FIFA appointed a referee from Argentina for the match in order to favour Lionel Messi.
“It’s unacceptable that an Argentine referee was in charge today after what happened yesterday, with Messi complaining. After what I saw today, they can give the title to Argentina now,” the former Real Madrid defender, who faced Messi regularly in LaLiga when the latter played for Barcelona, said in his post-match interview.
“This is stronger than me and I’ll have to say it. It’s unacceptable for an Argentine referee to referee our game. The feeling and arrogance of the referee on the field, I can bet everything I have that Argentina will be champions.”
Fernandes was also frustrated and suggested Portugal were not only up against Morocco but also against the referee.
“We knew what kind of referees we would find in the competition when we entered it,” the Manchester United midfielder claimed.
“But I won’t go into that, but there were many minutes in which the game was stopped: at least, in the second half, there should have been 15 or 20 minutes of added time.
“We knew we were going to play against more than the Moroccan national team and that we had to decide in 90 minutes.”