The VAR referee wanted to verify Szymon Marciniak’s decision in the 87th minute of the final

Szymon Marciniak and his assistants Tomasz Listkiewicz and Paweł Sokolnicki led the final of the World Cup for the first time in their career. In the VAR car, they were supported by another Pole, Tomasz Kwiatkowski. The main referee twice during the match between Argentina and France indicated a penalty kick, and his decisions were considered correct. Marciniak had to assess one more situation in the penalty area and the VAR judges had reservations about his decision. It turned out that the 41-year-old was infallible.

VAR questioned Szymon Marciniak’s decision. They checked and were sure that it was not necessary

The situation that Tomasz Kwiatkowski and the rest of the VAR judges originally assessed as Marciniak’s error took place in the 87th minute of the match. Then it was in the penalty box of Argentina that Marcus Thuram fell, who clashed with Enzo Fernandez. The French striker was clearly looking for contact with the rival and tried to trick Szymon Marciniak. The Polish referee almost without thinking showed Thuram a yellow card for simulating and was sure that a penalty was out of the question.

After returning to Poland, Tomasz Kwiatkowski told journalists that initially the intuition suggested the VAR team to verify Marciniak’s decision. However, after replays, all the judges came to the conclusion that the decision of the main umpire was right and there is no doubt about it.

The situation with the fall of Marcus Thuram in the Argentina penalty box can be seen in the video below.

FIFA’s head of referees Pierluigi Colina admitted after the meeting that the work of the refereeing team was “unbelievable”, and Szymon Marciniak . Similarly, Howard Webb claimed the work of the 41-year-old. Only the French had reservations about the work of the Polish arbitrator, who even tried to “do” and questioned the speed of his decisions.