Real Madrid superstar forward Kylian Mbappe is now sitting on 20 goals in his World Cup history, but he really should have been tied with Lionel Messi on 21 goals after France's comfortable quarterfinal victory over Morocco.
Because before Mbappe's latest ridiculous curled goal at the tournament of tournaments, the French striker had a spot kick in the first half. But the refs spent well over three minutes reviewing the play on VAR despite it being a clear and obvious penalty committed by Manchester United defender Noussair Mazraoui for Morocco, giving no indication as to what they were reviewing.
It was a very questionable moment that iced Mbappe, threw him off his game, and led to a timid penalty unlike the ones Mbappe usually takes. Anyone could see how flawed the VAR was to review that, and it was the latest incident of VAR being poorly implemented, with accusations of bias against Argentina, who are already under investigation, given that all the refs for this game were inexplicably from the same country and made this bizarre decision.
Kylian Mbappe had to overcome the refs
Real Madrid fans and fans all over the world could see what had happened, and Kylian Mbappe himself confirmed it to reporters: what the refs did messed with his head and caused the miss.
He told reporters, via Ilies Peeters of 90min France, "I shot my penalty poorly, but it was tricky: there was a mix-up. The referee tells me there's a penalty. I get ready. Then he comes to tell me there might not be a penalty after all. I let myself get distracted. I wasn't familiar with that scenario yet."
While Mbappe, as ever, was refreshingly accountable by stating that he was the one who made the ultimate mistake and should have been mentally calm to score the penalty regardless, it was still a terrible and unfair situation for the French superstar to be put in.
The whole world saw how thrown Mbappe was by the refs telling him to pick the ball up then put it back again and keeping him in limbo for a handful of minutes, and even Erling Haaland posted on Snapchat that the situation was ridiculous.
But in the end, Mbappe got an even better goal and France ultimately prevailed. FIFA and the refs continue to cause issues at the World Cup, leading to more calls for investigations, but Argentina have not won yet.
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