Manuel Akanji, defender for the Swiss national team, held nothing back after being eliminated. He pointed directly at the refereeing in the match against Argentina and did not hesitate to make it public.
“I had never played such an uneven match”, he said, visibly upset. For him, the sending-off of his teammate Embolo set the course of the match, while on the other side controversial plays went unnoticed without consequence.
What hurt Akanji most was not losing, but feeling that they had been playing against the rules from the start. “None of their dives were penalized. Everything was called in their favor”, he concluded, leaving a question in the air that has already begun circulating among Swiss fans: could they have won that match?