KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Switzerland were left furious after forward Breel Embolo was sent off in the second half of Saturday's World Cup quarterfinal after a video review found him guilty of simulation in his team's 3-1 extra-time loss to Argentina.

Leandro Paredes initially was shown a yellow card for a tackle, but video showed that Embolo was falling before the Argentina midfielder made contact with him. And because Embolo received a yellow card earlier in the match, he was given a red card, leaving the Swiss to play the remainder of a game tied 1-1 with only 10 players.

"I just don't understand how VAR can make that kind of decision," Swiss defender Nico Elvedi said after the match.

It was a massive momentum swing after Switzerland's Dan Ndoye had tied the score moments earlier.

"After the equalizer, we had the momentum on our side, and I wanted to make substitutions there as well, to bring on fresh attacking players," Switzerland coach Murat Yakin said.

"We were dominant. We controlled the game. But the red card, we are punished because of a rule that is, to me, absolutely incomprehensible. Of course it hurts enormously that we were eliminated in this way. We didn't deserve that today."

It's the second time a yellow card has been overturned using the "mistaken identity" protocol at the World Cup. The rule allows the video assistant referee to intervene when an incorrect player is shown a yellow or red card.

Had Paredes not been booked for the tackle, VAR would not have been able to intervene.

"For a situation where beforehand there should have been yellow cards several times, he gave a yellow card in a situation that, to me, was a harmless foul -- or if it was even a foul at all," Yakin said. "They protect their referee over a rule that destroyed our game today. That hurts enormously.

"First of all, for me there was not a single reason to give the Argentine player a yellow card. He simply should have let play continue. He corrected his own mistake against us, and well, afterward you could see that we were playing with one fewer man."

Embolo was in tears after being ordered to leave the field and was consoled by teammates on the sideline.

"You can imagine how Breel feels," Yakin said. "He had been attacked several times beforehand, and he had two or three good phases in the attacking game. But afterward he could no longer help the team.

"To blame him now is absolutely absurd. He always works for the team, he always had good moments in our game, of course he's devastated that he couldn't help the team."

The match was decided in extra time with late goals from Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez.

"I think the red card changed our game," Swiss captain Granit Xhaka said. "This decision was difficult to accept now after the game because the dressing room was very quiet, disappointed."

Embolo is the fourth player in the past 60 years of the World Cup to receive a second yellow card for simulation, joining Mexico's Luis Pérez (2006 vs. Portugal), Ghana's Asamoah Gyan (2006 vs. Brazil) and Italy's Francesco Totti (2002 vs. South Korea).

ESPN's Bill Connelly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49339724/switzerland-breel-embolo-red-card-diving-var-argentina-2026-world-cup