Nope, no easy games at this stage. Just thinking ahead as if we do want to reach the final, France will no doubt be our biggest test.
The match officials decided that the Tunisia defender did not make a "deliberate play" therefore Griezmann was offside. Yeah, I'm confused too. If heading the ball isn't considered a deliberate play then I'm not sure what is.
Just complete bollocks. I saw it live with the sound off, and was expecting it to go to VAR, but couldn’t believe it when they told the ref to have a look. Game’s gone.
Honestly, while most of these bad decisions have come through VAR, the bigger issue at play is that none of the match officials seem to know how the ****ing rules work. Just off the top of my head, some of those (not just the really iffy pens) include: - The offside given on the Ecuador goal versus Qatar. As best as I ever worked out, they ruled it an offside on a ricochet off the keeper (he was onside when the ball was initially played, and that's what the 'offside' they showed on replay featured), which isn't remotely how that works. - The offside given in the Belgium - Canada game where the Belgian player passed it to a Canadian, who then should have won a penalty. You can't be offside because the opposition passed you the ball. That isn't a thing! - The 'handball' that is explicitly not a handball by the rules of the game. Not even a debatable call, it just...isn't handball. - Deciding that heading a ball isn't making a deliberate play. Getting smacked in the face isn't deliberate. Heading is. All four of those are extraordinarily incompetent decisions that match officials on the largest stage should not be making. VAR is only an accessory-after-the-fact to the crime, which is that the refs are clearly not good enough.
Yep VAR is jus highlighting that not even referees know the rules fully & this should be the discussion and not getting rid of VAR
Messi is top of the pile when it comes to players that stroll around the pitch. A bit worrying that Salisu is so high up the list. No other CB appears until you get down to Konate, Glik, and Stones.
I'm not sure why you included the Qatar - Ecuador one as that was offside directly from the free kick and that was down to the technology.
The Belgium Canada incident - the assistant gave offside. He can be forgiven for thinking the ball came off a Canada foot given his position but the referee should have seen it. But it wasn't a pen afterwards as replays showed the Belgium player getting a big touch on the ball before the Canada player so it had to stick with the offside. That wasn't a case of referee's not knowing the rules, it was a case of them seeing the wrong thing and making a mistake. I can't however, defend the handball or the disallowed France goal.
There wasn't even a Canadian player that attempted to play the ball. Must've been a replay of the Ecuador - Qatar goal that wasn't shown on the North American feed I was watching, then. Because when they showed off the technology there, the line they drew had him millimeters beyond the keeper. Which very much wasn't the case on the actual free kick.
The Ecuador one was definitely the correct call. Wasn't obvious at the time but it was offside - it just didn't look like it at the time.
