Having watched the game tonight i cant help feeling a little bit left short changed by the way the refs in the Europa league conduct the games ! I thought the ref was v poor but on realistic terms ... the players simply cant make a challenge full stop ? They r scared to death to do so !! To be precise you cannot get anywhere close to an oppo player or its a foul .. card yellow and then red these cards are very unjust and it makes you wonder wher football is going ! Why are r simple challenges deemed as carded offences ? Surely this is ruinin the game ? Where r we goin with this kind of mentality .. Cause we have to say the British game is really not built on this tradition ! I wonder if we r now succumbin to the likes of Arsene Wengers pretty boys ? and his rants that players cannot tackle and lets play pretty football ! Perhaps the french estranged man is getting his own way after all !
I didnt see the match, but the Upson challenge looked like a RED to me? I agree with your thoughts in general on the european game and this also reflected at international level. The likes of Barca, Real etc are set up prefectly for this type of game (you play then we play) and was summed up by Alonso stating that tackling was not a skill! I do honestly believe that teh likes of Real or Barca would find it difficult to win the prem, its a long, hard and fast pace season played in awful conditions - something that I think alot of the players would not be suited to - even though they are fantastically skilled!
Smither's Twas a Red card mate no question.. last man no argument. Also to pick up on the diving.. their player's were going down if blown on tbh.. BUT Ricky Fuller who I thought had a decent game. DIVED 2nd half. Of course he's not the first to do it and THAT is why it pees me off when other fans complain but will NOT admit when one of their own does it. Fuller to be fair was only doing what a few of their player's got away with before then.. Free kicks from anywhere, moving ball, diving all over the place.. And, they hacked him down quite a few times and as Ric is Ric he got rattled, and booked. The result? Jerome should have scored.. but once Upson went off it was only at matter of time before they scored.. Still we are through, Fuller showed he's still got something to give. Begovic was fantastic! And, I HOPE UEFA look at the fans behaviour.. THREE times they threw items. That, for me isn't on.. throw em out of the comp IMO.
