Australian football great Mark Bosnich has labelled the dramatic pitch invasion that halted the opening match of the men’s Olympic football match as “alarming”.

The security operations at Paris 2024 experienced their first test when Morocco supporters stormed that field at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard late in the side’s 2-1 win over Argentina.

In the 16th minute of additional time, an equaliser from Argentine Cristian Medina saw attendees throw objects from the stands and force their way onto the field, causing the players to come from the field and the match to be suspended for two hours.

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Once the situation on the pitch was rectified, the crowd was instructed to leave the stadium.

After a lengthy delay, the players returned to the field to warm up before playing the remaining three minutes of added time with no spectators present.

“It was a mess,” Bosnich told Wide World of Sports.

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“The Olympics are one of the biggest security exercises in the entire world, so it was a bit dangerous.

“In the end, it didn’t end up being too harmful but it has the potential to be going deeper into the tournament — you don’t want to have any type of pitch invasions.”

Morocco led the match 2-nill before Argentina mounted a fight back.

Forward Giuliano Simeone scored in the 68th minute before Medina’s late effort appeared to level the score, causing chaos to erupt.

Before play resumed in the empty stadium, Medina’s goal was reviewed by VAR and disallowed for offside. Morocco went on to take victory.

“It’s a shame really because it was such a good game,” Bosnich said.

“Morocco, who were semi-finalists at the last World Cup, were so good during the game.

Their fans have brought so much to the sport and then to see the invasion after the Argentine equaliser … it is something that should not have happened and hopefully doesn’t happen again.

With the goal being disputed, the incident caused confusion as to whether the full time whistle had gone and the game was finished.

“There was a general sense that the players and officials needed to get off the pitch,” Bosnich said.

“A lot of people said, ‘Why couldn’t he (referee Glenn Nyberg) make the decision straight away’. I think the only reason was they needed to get off the pitch first and foremost because they were concerned about their safety.

“Then there was obviously having to wait for clarification from the powers that be as to how they were going to proceed.

“Hopefully it was an incident that we can confine to the dust bin and not see again because if we see it again, then sterner action needs to be taken but I think (organisers) know that.”

Following another serious security breach at the Copa America final earlier this month, Bosnich said these sorts of risks need to be mitigated with the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cups on the horizon.

“We need to make sure that everything is buttoned down,” he said.

“This needs not to happen again.”

Mark Bosnich will appear as a football expert on Stan Sport’s Olympics Daily and Paris Preview shows throughout the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.