Argentina is in the finals of the Copa America 2024 following an easy 2-0 victory over Canada. Lionel Messi and Co. remained dominant throughout the 90 minutes and crushed the dream run of the underdogs. However, the focus shifted away from the result and turned towards a biased decision of the referee. Fans around the world are slamming the official Piero Maza for not making the call over the injury of Alphonso Davies and rather favoring Rodrigo De Paul in another incident.

The moment transpired just after the hour mark. La Albiceleste had already doubled their lead thanks to a decent first-half finish from Julian Alvarez and Lionel Messi’s first-ever goal in the tournament. Interestingly, Gonzalo Montiel gave a hard challenge to Alphonso Davies from behind. The Bayern Munich left-back went down and was jerking on the ground in pain. Despite receiving medical attention, Davies couldn’t continue as he was replaced by Jonathan Osorio.

However, minutes later, another incident saw Rodrigo De Paul dribbling with the ball as Canada’s Stephen Eustáquio tried to give a sliding challenge. Though a closer look reveals that the contact wasn’t even made, the Atletico Madrid midfielder still dived on the ground. Interestingly, as De Paul was lying on the pitch in pain, rival midfielder Ismaël Koné came behind and slightly kicked the ball on the back of the 30-year-old. 

As the moment created havoc on the pitch, referee Maza came to cool the matter and simply booked Kone for his antics. This incident doesn’t settle in the eyes of many, as they slam the official over his biased decisions.

Fans unleash fury on referee Piero Maza for favoring Rodrigo De Paul over attending Alphonso Davies’ injury moment

Both of these incidents became a topic of discussion on X, formerly Twitter. The netizens are questioning Piero Maza on what basis he didn’t book Gonzalo Montiel for the harsh tackle on Alphonso Davies but quickly took out his yellow card when Rodrigo De Paul went down.

One may agree that Montiel deserved a booking for his challenge when compared to De Paul’s incident. But there’s no doubt about the fact that it was an unnecessary act from Koné, even though the ball wasn’t kicked that hard.

The outrage looks obvious among CanMNT fans. While the tackle from Montiel at least deserved a yellow, the Chilean referee thought otherwise. We wonder what Maza saw from his angle. 

Davies was in pain as he left the field limping. This is certainly not a good sign for the speedy fullback. Though his Copa America journey came to an end, his domestic side may be forced to suffer the blow of a lengthy absence.

It looks like referee Piero Maza may have some answers to give for his controversial decisions tonight. This fan claims that tonight’s officiating was ridiculous and was completely in favor of Lionel Scaloni’s side.

This fan has a theory that it was unfortunate for Davies to get caught up in the incident. As for the De Paul incident, one can say that Argentina was lucky in the way they sold themselves in this clash.

Another eyebrow-raising fact is that the referee gave three yellow cards to Canada, compared to just one to Argentina. That too, Nahuel Molina got booked after he came on the pitch as a substitute in the final moments of the game. Regardless, we would like to know your thoughts in the comments.