Zlatko Dalic’s Croatia were knocked out of the World Cup by Argentina (Picture: Getty)

Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic has criticised the decision to award Argentina a penalty in their semi-final defeat at the World Cup, describing it as ‘suspicious’.

Julian Alvarez’s brace and a Lionel Messi penalty saw Argentina run out 3-0 winners at the Lusail Stadium and end Croatia’s impressive World Cup run.

Croatia, who reached the final in 2018, beat Japan and Brazil on penalties to set up an intriguing encounter with the well-fancied Argentina.

But Dalic’s side found themselves 2-0 behind at half-time as Messi converted a penalty controversially won by Alvarez, before the Manchester City forward doubled Argentina’s lead.

Messi and Alvarez combined to put the game to bed in the second half but Dalic rued the decision to award Argentina a first-half penalty when the game was still in the balance.

Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Roy Keane all disagreed with the penalty decision after Alvarez collided with Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.

Asked for his take on the match and the penalty incident, Croatia boss Dalic said: ‘I would like to congratulate Argentina for winning the semi-final and to thank our boys for what they have done.

Lionel Messi scored and assisted in Argentina’s comfortable win (Picture: Getty)

‘We need to get back to our feet and try to win the third place. We started the first half an hour well but did not have ball possession and then conceded.

‘The first goal as very suspicious, to be honest. First, we had the situation with the corner. Apparently we should have had a corner, according to the reaction of our players. Then we had the situation with the penalty.It was a little bit too cheap and easy.

‘We tried to go back, had a counter then conceded a second. It was done at that point. We had possession but did not create opportunities.’

Dalic added: ‘They won against us and achieved the result they wanted. It is sport, they are aggressive and feisty and there is nothing for me to complain about.

‘I have not objections to make and we cannot get nervous and accept aggression but they put four aggressive attackers. We did not have the quality we needed.

‘I have said this is the worst situation we can be in. Now you have a loss and have to fight for third. I told the players they have to keep their head up and be proud of what they have achieved.

‘We need to psychologically come back for the game versus France or Morocco [3rd vs 4th play-off]. The players are sad, it is hard for them and they feel they could have done more.’

More to follow…