With only five games left in the competition, and each one occurring at a unique time, I figure there will be discussion for all of them and it's worth moving toward individual match threads. All posts on this game should go here, rather than the UEFA catch-all thread.
Thought Eriksson could have managed the wall on Chelsea's added time free kick a little better. After he set them and blew the whistle, they crept forward 2 yards and blocked the free kick
Yeah, but the ball was blasted right at the wall--at waist-level. I think you could almost see him think about it a moment as he paused in his run the other way. Yeah, they crept forward. But it had no effect on the free kick and that would be a very soft first yellow in a game that might need a few next half (and has already had a few incidents that he managed without yellows). Couple corner kick decisions wrong. And a phantom foul (Atletico player kicked his teammate). I still think his foul selection is erratic compared to some of the other Elite refs. And he has a very authoritative personality compared to some of the other guys, too. But he's keeping a lid on things, like he usually does. It's obvious why UEFA trusts him for some of the bigger encounters.
I thought the same thing. "Huh, that looked like FRD. I wonder why he didn't call it. Oh look no one is appealing for it. I guess he thought it was trifling. Ok."
Eriksson is a scary guy. If I got an AC from him I'd be shitting my pants. During the mass confrontation I caught a look at his whistles, he is rocking an Acme Tornado 2000 and Molten Valkeen.
Not really. He denied a 2CT to Lampard for handling, which led to a mass confrontation with two cards given out. I did think David Luiz should have been sent off for causing two Chelsea injures
He certainly let the players know that he was watching the watch for time wasting. I thought he might add another minute to each half than he did.
Yea it was handling but in a sort of way that gets let go quite often. Don't think it was of a caution worthy sort though.
Thought that was a little over the top, actually. He was being very demonstrative about it, but it didn't seem to me that either team was wasting time, or claiming that their opposition were. I wonder if UEFA asked him/all semifinal referees to be strict on timewasting
It certainly was. The special one has extremely negative tactics when away from home. Horrible and boring game.