Correspondence from Qatar
Marciniak in the meeting between Argentina and France (3:3, k. 4:2) was vigilant, precise and almost faultless. He made tough decisions without hesitation, and their precision and confidence quickly earned him an authority among footballers.
“He was amazing”, wrote well-known German journalist Raphael Honigstein, and chief referee Pierluigi Collina, in an interview with Zbigniew Boniek on Roman Kołtoń’s “Prawda Futbolu” channel, said: – It turned out being stronger than technology, he made incredibly precise decisions on the pitch.
The French see the performance of the Pole differently, in a very critical way. Vincent Duluc writes that during the final “the referee did not want to do his job” and his “L’Equipe” rates our referee a “2” on a scale of 10 points, writing on “the generosity of Mr. Marciniak”.
The French believe that he did not react to the brutal interruption of the Argentine counter-attacks and are surprised that the brutal central defender Cristian Romero finished the match without a yellow card.
Nor did Marciniak punish goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who picked up and sent the ball away before Aurélien Tchouameni’s penalty. “Le Monde” described the Pole in this situation as “a policeman who has no control over the situation”.
Marciniak – as ‘L’Equipe’ mentions later – also dictated a penalty for a foul on Angel di Maria, and ignored a similar infraction Marcus Thuram suffered. VAR referee Tomasz Kwiatkowski also did not react to “not judge his compatriot in front of the whole world”.
– It could have been better, but it could have been worse. True, there were questionable decisions, as in every game – says Deschamps, who spoke to Marciniak after the final whistle. – I won’t go into details. I just congratulate Argentina – the coach of the World Cup vice-champions.
