Mat Ryan led Australia’s complaints after VAR made its first mark on a World Cup in their 2-1 defeat by France. “I feel hard done by,” the goalkeeper said. “I don’t feel we were beaten by a better team but almost by technology a little bit.”

Australia’s manager, Bert van Marwijk, was also outspoken, inferring that the referee caved in to pressure when consulting a replay on the edge of the pitch. The Uruguayan official Andrés Cunha reversed his original reaction that Josh Risdon’s challenge on Antoine Griezmann was not worthy of a penalty, after being guided to check the incident by the video assistant referee Mauro Vigliano.

Paul Pogba scores with technology’s help to take France past Australia Read more

“I hoped that maybe one time there will be a referee who is very honest,” Van Marwijk said. “I saw him standing there. The body language was that he didn’t know. Then you have to take a decision: France or Australia? I got a lot of reactions. Let’s say from 10 people, seven say penalty and three say no penalty. It’s very difficult. It’s also difficult when the referee has 50,000 people on his back and has to decide.”

Van Marwijk’s main gripe was that he felt the referee saw the decision in real time, was close to it, made a decision and should have stuck to it. “I think he was standing very close to the moment and he directly said no penalty, he directly said go on. Everyone is talking about VAR. It’s the start. We have to learn a lot about this system.”

It was an emotional take on a situation that appeared to be handled efficiently by Cunha and his backup team.

“I don’t want to cause controversy, and I am not here to make excuses, but there are a lot of grey areas,” Ryan said. Griezmann, though, was unequivocal. “I felt the contact,” he said. “For me it was a penalty.”

Play Video 0:48 'I've never been a fan': Australia's Trent Sainsbury frustrated with VAR – video

Didier Deschamps was understandably supportive of the way VAR was executed. “I am not going to complain about VAR – it went in our favour,” the France manager said. “The ref didn’t see there was a foul and he was able to correct this when he reviewed the clip.”

He acknowledged the need for improvement before France take on Peru in their next match. “We were not quick enough on the pitch, offensively we were not as good as we can be. Today it was a bit tricky. We must do better than that. We can and we will.”

After Griezmann scored the 58th-minute penalty, Australia rallied to equalise with a spot kick of their own. The match was decided when Paul Pogba’s deflected shot bounced over the line – a goal verified by goalline technology.