Now the English too – anger at the referees is growing
England experience their next penalty drama against France – the highlights in the video
England are dramatically defeated by defending champions France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. In a high-class duel, Harry Kane becomes the tragic hero with a missed penalty. The highlights in the video.
First of all, it is not surprising that the losers complain about the referee after their World Cup elimination. This weekend, however, there has been severe criticism on several occasions in Qatar. In part it is justified. The question now is why it is now so concentrated.
Dhe frustration with the referee was so great that Pepe even forgot his pain. With a broken arm, the defender stood in the stadium after Portugal’s World Cup failure and complained about the referee. “It’s unacceptable that an Argentinian referee is refereeing our game,” the 39-year-old complained about Facundo Tello after the 1-0 draw against Morocco. He hardly intervened, although the Moroccans interrupted “every one of our moves” with fouls in the quarter-finals.
It was only later that the hospital found out how badly Pepe had injured himself. That will not have changed anything about the disappointment about the quarter-finals.
The sometimes violent criticism of the Portuguese of the referee fits in a way with the picture of the past weekend. First, the Netherlands and Argentina had set a record of yellow cards in their hard-fought duel: According to the statistics service provider Opta, there had never been 15 warnings for players from both teams in any game in the history of the World Cup. Despite reaching the semi-finals, superstar Lionel Messi also complained about the poor performance of the referee. There was also criticism of Brazilian Wilson Sampaio’s refereeing in France’s 2-1 win over England. “A joke!” be this, tweeted the English ex-pro Gary Neville.
“One hundred percent penalty to Kane,” Lineker judged
But where does the concentrated criticism come from? And what is it all about? It doesn’t come as a surprise at first that the English or Portuguese made negative comments about the referees after they left. In fact, at least Sampaio seemed unsure and overwhelmed in his game in several situations. The Brazilian had to judge several tricky penalty scenes. The 40-year-old awarded England two penalties in the second half. The first turned Harry Kane, the second he shot over the gate.
Former international Gary Lineker should have had a third penalty before half-time. It involved a scene in the 25th minute when Kane was fouled in the penalty area by Bayern defender Dayot Upamecano in the 25th minute. “One hundred percent penalty to Kane,” said Lineker.
Also for the German referee Patrick Ittrich, an expert at Magenta TV, a very clear penalty: “It would have been quite good if the referee had recognized foul play. I don’t understand it.” The English also complain that Aurelien Tchoumeni’s 0-1 lead (17′) shouldn’t have counted. On the touchline, Upamecano separated Arsenal player Bukayo Saka from the ball – for many it was a foul. For Neville, Lineker and also ZDF expert Per Mertesacker. But not for referee Sampaio.
After the heated game between Portugal and Morocco, the direction of the criticism was a little different. The fact that the Argentinian gave Tello only eight minutes of added time given the North Africans’ obvious time play from the second half seems worthy of discussion. Otherwise he showed a decent performance. What bothered the Portuguese most was simply his nationality. And the fact that an Argentinian referee, whose home country is also still represented in the tournament, is officiating such an explosive quarter-final is also worthy of discussion.
After Morocco’s sensational victory, Cristiano Ronaldo bursts into tears – the highlights in the video
Morocco made football history against Portugal and became the first African team to reach a World Cup semifinals. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo weeps bitter tears after his probably last World Cup game. The highlights in the video.
The world association Fifa did not comment on the appointments of referees during the World Cup.
“I don’t want to talk about referees because you can be punished. You can’t say what you think,” said Messi after the semi-finals. But then he did. Because this referee was not up to the game, said the world star about the Spaniard Antonio Mateu Lahoz.
A German referee will not be appointed for the semi-finals – Daniel Siebert had already left before the quarter-finals.
