Michael Oliver refereed the second match of the World Cup group stage, between France and Norway, after retiring from refereeing one game due to injury.
Kylian Mbappe points out what he wishes Michael Oliver had done (Image: Getty Images)
Kylian Mbappé instructed Michael Oliver to pass the captain’s armband to Aurélien Choameny after being substituted during France’s 4-1 win over Norway. The incident comes just a week after the Real Madrid forward had a heated exchange with referee Alireza Fagani during the first group stage game against Senegal.
Mbappe, 27, was less than enthusiastic about Premier League officials. After taking off his armband, he walked over to Oliver with his arm outstretched, fiddling with it with his right hand.
During the handover, Mbappé stood firm while giving instructions and managed to extend the game. Then he pointed to Choa Meni.
Oliver responded immediately as he continued to leave the pitch to be replaced by Jean-Philippe Mateta. France were now leading 3-1, and Desire Duet delivered the final blow to Norway in the fourth minute of stoppage time, heading in a cross from Bradley Barcola.
Although Mbappé didn’t get on the scoresheet, he assisted the first two goals of Ousmane Dembele’s 25-minute hat-trick. Choameni scored the third goal, giving Cerro Asgord back a two-goal advantage after briefly halving the point difference.
Madrid’s key player completed his hat-trick of assists with three minutes remaining at the end of the 90th minute. But that wasn’t the case.
Michael Oliver and Kylian Mbappe briefly pushed and pulled the captain’s armband (Image: Javier Garcia/Shutterstock)
Although the match was effectively over at that point, Mbappé was still apparently well aware of the new substitution time restrictions. That’s why he insisted on handing the armband to the referee, rather than handing it in himself as he did last season.
World Cup players have just 10 seconds to leave the pitch after their numbers are displayed. Measures to curb time-wasting mean that if a substitution is not made in time, the opposing team will be penalized by having to play with 10 men for at least one minute.
The only exception to leaving the pitch at the nearest point is injury or safety concerns, neither of which applies in this example.
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However, Mbappé did not stick to the rules as much in France’s opening match. After a penalty against Senegal was chalked away, the captain protested as he felt Sadio Mane had committed a foul.
After consulting pitchside monitors, Fagani stood by his decision and insisted Mbappe had initiated contact with the former Liverpool player. Dembele and Michael Olise also reprimanded the referee.
Lipreader expert analyst and Lipreader Nicola Hickling confirmed that Mr Faghani had said: “That Diouf is just a contact, and Sadio is a contact.” Mbappé responded, “Hey, I’ll go and have a look.”
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