During Poland’s World Cup match against Argentina, Wojciech Szczesny and Lionel Messi wagered that the referee would not give a penalty, the goalkeeper has said.
In the opening period of Poland’s 2-0 defeat in Group C, the Juventus goalkeeper denied Messi from the penalty spot after a contentious call in which Danny Makkelie pointed to the spot after studying the event and acting on VAR instructions.
Szczesny was one of many who believed that there shouldn’t have been a penalty, even going so far as to wager against Messi during the game’s delay, but he has no plans to fulfill his end of the bargain.
“We spoke before the penalty. I told him I can bet him €100 that he [the referee] wasn’t going to give it. So, I’ve lost a bet against Messi,” he said after the match.
“I don’t know if that’s allowed at the World Cup and I’m probably going to get banned for it but I don’t care right now. And I’m not going to pay him either! He doesn’t care about €100, come on.”
After stopping Salem Al Dawsari of Saudi Arabia in the previous round of matches, Szczesny’s denial of Messi from the penalty spot became the Polish goalie just the third goalkeeper to save two penalties at a single World Cup tournament, excluding shoot-outs.
However, the close race in Group C to qualify to the knockout stage, with Poland barely winning on goal differential over Mexico, kept his celebrations in check.
“Yeah it was nice, I didn’t know at the time it was going to help us get through so I tried not to celebrate,” he added.
“But I’ve had some bad luck at the big tournaments so far, the World Cup four years ago was awful for me and I owed this much to the team and in the last two games I managed to help them a little bit.”
Poland will face defending champions France at Al Thumama Stadium on Sunday in the nation’s first appearance in the knockout stage since 1986.