At 0-0, Lautaro Martínez was double-tackled by two Austrian defenders inside the box. The on-field referee initially waved play on — no PK. VAR reviewed the incident, identified a clear and obvious missed foul, and recommended an On-Field Review (OFR). The referee went to the monitor, reviewed the angles, and overturned his initial decision — awarding a penalty kick to Argentina. Messi missed the resulting spot kick. The PK award is correct under Law 12 + Law 14: the double-tackle pattern means each defender's contact is judged independently, and the second Austrian defender's foot-on-foot contact on Lautaro's planted boot is a foul regardless of any clean ball-play by the other defender. The VAR intervention is the protocol working as designed — a missed on-field call corrected after independent review by both VAR and the on-field official viewing the monitor angles. CORRECT DECISION, HIGH confidence.
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