‘There was definitely handball’: Morocco coach questions Mbappé goal as VAR no-show fuels World Cup debate

France’s Kylian Mbappe (10) greets Morocco head coach Mohamed Ouahbi after the match. (AP photo) Morocco head coach Mohamed Ouahbi has questioned the lead-up to Kylian Mbappé’s key goal following their 2-0 FIFA World Cup quarter-final defeat to France, insisting it was “definitely a handball”, while expressing confusion over why the incident was not reviewed by VAR.Controversy arose during the sequence leading up to Mbappé’s goal, with several Moroccan players stopping play as they believed France had handled the ball in the build-up.After Morocco’s World Cup campaign ended, Ouahbi admitted he was unsure whether the incident should have resulted in a free-kick, but claimed the handball itself was evident.“Some players quit because there was handball. And there was definitely handball!” Ouahbi told reporters. “I don’t know if it was supposed to be called or not, I have no idea… in the end it was Kylian Mbappé’s individual effort that led to the goal.”

Why didn’t VAR intervene

Despite Morocco’s protests, referee analyst Juan Guzmán explained that the officials were right to disallow the goal.According to Guzmán, the handball was accidental and had no direct or immediate impact on the goal. More importantly, possession changed hands before Mbappé’s decisive contribution, meaning the attacking phase that produced the goal was considered separate from the previous incident.According to the rules of the game, VAR only intervenes in attacking handball situations when an attack directly leads to a goal or creates an immediate goal-scoring opportunity. As these conditions were not met, the goal remained standing.

France deserved the victory, admits Ouahbi

Although Ouahbi was disappointed by the controversial moment, he acknowledged that France were the better team throughout the match.“We are disappointed but the first half was very difficult,” he said. “The French were very good with the ball. They had a lot of possession, they caused their players a lot of problems on the flanks and also in the middle.The Morocco coach admitted his team struggled to launch effective counter-attacks whenever they regained possession.“When we had the ball, our transitions weren’t that great, so we needed to run a bit more and ended up in a comfort zone,” he added.Ouahbi also admitted that France created more clear-cut chances while Morocco lacked freshness and creativity.“We have to admit that they are a great team. They have excellent players and had better opportunities to score goals. We lacked ideas and freshness,” he said.Despite yet another World Cup exit at the hands of France, who knocked out Morocco in the semi-finals in 2022, Ouahbi believes the Atlas Lions continue to close the gap on the world’s elite.“Today France was stronger but we are able to compete and go further and maybe knock them out in four years,” he said.He ended with a message of pride and realism for his players: “I told my players to keep their heads up because we gave it our all… but we have to assess the situation. We can’t just say we’re happy and proud of our performance. We have to move forward and to do that we have to be objective and do some self-criticism.”