Wayne Rooney claimed that Enzo Fernandez and Argentina “deserved” to lose the World Cup final after chaos erupted at the full-time whistle in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Spain secured their second world title at the MetLife Stadium as Ferran Torres struck an extra-time winner.
Ugly scenes after the final whistle
Ugly scenes broke out as referee Slavko Vincic blew his whistle for the last time. Spanish players celebrated, but frustrated Argentinians let their tempers get the better of them. The trouble started when Manchester City's Rodri was squared up to by Argentine right-back Nahuel Molina, before Leandro Paredes attempted to swing at both Eric Garcia and Gavi. Paredes wrestled Gavi to the ground, grabbing him by the shirt in a nasty turn of events, and was shown a straight red card after the full-time whistle.
Argentina, the defending champions, had already had Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez sent off for a horror challenge on Pau Cubarsi in second-half stoppage time. Fernandez had already been booked for dissent earlier in the match.
Rooney: 'Disgusting' and 'sad'
In the BBC studio afterwards, former England striker Rooney said 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.”
Paredes singled out as instigator
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.”
