It's almost like the "Hand of God". Except this time, the hand belonged to a 25-year old Raul Ruidiaz from Peru, not Diego Maradona. And the team on the receiving end were not England but Brazil.

Brazil needed just a draw against Peru in their last group game to progress into the Copa America Centenario quarter-finals along with Ecuador, who had defeated Haiti 4-0 in the earlier match. For around 75 minute, they played true to type – incisive in passing, strong in possession, but fizzling out when it came to scoring. But then all they needed was a draw and Peru hardly looked threatening, so Brazil wouldn't have been unduly worried.

Then in the 75th minute, Andy Polo ripped in a cross, one of the few incisive moves by Peru in Brazil's half. And then, in a scene eerily reminiscent of 1986, Raul Ruidiaz paddled the ball neatly past Brazil's goal-keeper Alisson with his right hand, and then wheeled away to celebrate. It was a clear, clear handball – and it's evident from all the replays (video below, from 5.24 onward).

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Pandemonium ensued. Alisson and Brazil's Dani Alves immediately started remonstrating with the referee. Then Peru's players started arguing with him for the goal. Chaos continued with the referee surrounded by sets of angry players, whom he tried to hold back. For almost an eternity – ok, close to five minutes – he consulted the fourth official. And then finally allowed the goal.

Brazil couldn't get an equaliser and crashed out of the tournament, the first time they have exited the Copa America at the group stages since 1987. And it immediately set in motion another controversy over refereeing standards in international football.

There were those who criticised Brazil's approach, pointing out that the team was unable to score against either Ecuador or Peru (even being lucky to have a goal disallowed against them versus Ecuador) and did not deserve to qualify for the next stage.

But, naturally, there were many who came down heavily on the refereeing error and called for video replays to finally make an appearance in football. Writing for SB Nation, Evan J Davis said:

Video replay is now an integral part of all major team sports in the United States except soccer, as well as international sports like tennis, cricket and rugby. The detractors want to say that it slows the game down. The detractors want to say that the beauty of the game vanishes when such a cold, "robotic" element is added into gameplay. Nonsense. Not only has replay proved to get more calls right, this fiasco proved that leaving it to the refs actually slowed the game down more than replay ever would. Video review of Ruidíaz’s handball would have been quickly overturned the call and play would have been allowed to continue. End of story.

Furthermore, players from both teams harassed the officials non-stop while they tried to sort out the issue. If replay were in place, that harassment would be nullified and players would have no ability to influence the decision.

This was an elimination match in a major international tournament. Teams live and die by these calls. Would West Germany have been able to work their way back into the 1966 World Cup final? Would England have been able to overtake Argentina in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals? We’ll never know. What we do know is that these calls have massive consequences. This call cost Brazil big revenues with their elimination. This call may cost Dunga his job. None of it would have happened if replay was available to the officials. It’s time to grow up.

In any case, this controversy is likely to take centre-stage as Brazil make their way home. No one will argue that they are a shadow of their former selves, but it is worth asking: does any sport, especially one which is a multi-billion dollar industry like football, deserve to have such blatant errors overshadowing the action?

And while you contemplate that, here's a look at Ecuador's four exquisite goals as they saw off a listless Haiti to book a quarter-final spot.

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