Was Robert Lewandowski’s penalty against the Blues valid?

If the Polish striker stopped his momentum when taking his penalty on Tuesday, his equalizing goal against France was quite legitimate.

It’s an action that changes a lot of things for the Blues. Ahead thanks to a penalty from Kylian Mbappé, the France team finally conceded an infuriating draw against Poland (1-1), Tuesday June 25, which deprived it of first place in its group. The fault lies in a glaring lack of efficiency, but also in a poorly controlled gesture from Dayot Upamecano which gave Robert Lewandowski the opportunity to equalize in the 79th minute, also from a penalty.

The Pole’s first attempt, pushed back by Mike Maignan, was rightly invalidated by the referee because the French team’s goalkeeper had not “at the time of the shot (…) at least one foot on or behind his line”, as specified in article 14.1 of the IFAB, which governs the rules of the game. The second penalty, validated, raises questions. But for Rémi Serpaud, referee of N2 and N3, here too, the referee was right: “The law does speak of ‘pretending to hit the ball’. Textually, when Robert Lewandowski stops his run, he does not fake his shot, so there is no refereeing error.”

Indeed, article 14.2 of the IFAB clearly states: “If the shooter pretends to hit the ball after finishing his run (pausing in his run is allowed), the referee will warn the shooter.” In this case, the center forward did not fake the shot, he only paused several times in his run as he usually does.

But the law speaks “of a time out”, and not several. This is what particularly enraged Mike Maignan who regretted, on Instagram after the match, the validation of the goal, by re-sharing a publication from his representatives which denounced his run-up: “While the attacker begins his 87th feint in his run-up.”

For Rémi Serpaud, here too, the laws of the game leave no room for doubt: “It’s subtle, but clearly, the law doesn’t specify. So if the shooter wants to stop 20 times, he can.” In other words, the Polish striker’s goal was rightly validated.