When Eriksson and Brych went to Uruguay and New Zealand to do the second-leg intercontinental playoffs four years ago, it was just a formality. This time everything is still in it, so big matches for Pitana and Turpin coming up.
For what it's worth, the Italians accused Cakir of allowing Sweden to be too physical. http://www.espnfc.us/italy/story/32...lts-referee-after-undeserved-defeat-to-sweden Ventura was also critical of Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for allowing Sweden to be too physical -- defender Leonardo Bonucci said his nose was broken in the opening minute -- but the coach remained confident of Italy's chances in Monday's second leg at Milan's San Siro. "I hope in Milan they allow us what the referee allowed them, because in such an important game with so much at stake, you can't take that approach," he said. "But that's not a justification. A draw was the minimum we could've aimed for considering the two performances. I repeat, at this level, the referee needed to be more attentive. Bonucci told Sky Sport Italia that Ola Toivonen fractured his nose and said he was surprised Sweden finished the game with 10 men. "He broke my nose after 30 seconds and should've been sent off," the defender said. "There's not much you can say other than that. A referee with greater character would've sent off at least one of the Swedish players."
Italy just got very lucky, as what looked like a pretty obvious handling in the box wasn't called. 15th minute or so...will add video when I find it.
This Second leg of Italy v Sweden Has had a crazy first 25 minutes. Two possible penalties, one going each way, and three yellow cards. I got a feeling this isn’it going to end 11 against 11.
Wow, make it three potential missed penalties, plus a YC on Sweden when a player grabbed the ref to protest. This is all sorts of fun!
And Chiellini could easily be off with a 2CT. This is, on the face of it, possibly the most important international match of the year and therefore maybe the toughest high-profile referee assignment of the year. So it's hard to cast stones. But Mateu Lahoz does seem to be taking the NISOA Memorial "I"m not going to decide this match with a big call" approach. The first one is a foul. I guess sometimes those don't get given, so okay, benefit of the doubt. The second one he's looking right at and puts his whistle to his mouth--there's nothing else you can surmise other than the pressure got to him and his eyes convinced him that he saw something that didn't occur (or rather, he didn't see something that did occur) because it's a stonewall penalty. On the third one, the handling is on his blindside so he has a legitimate excuse as we just dragged Hategan for guessing on his blind side in the Northern Ireland/Switzerland match. But, unfortunately, this one was a penalty, too.
I saw the highlights at halftime. Early charge/push in the back was 100% a penalty. The first handling is a terrible miss. The second handling, I can see how he was screened. VAR would have been quite interesting in this game.
First penalty appeal: https://streamable.com/94df3 Second penalty appeal; https://streamable.com/9ztct and https://streamable.com/cou94 Third penalty appeal: https://streamable.com/io9hc Video not yet available for fourth penalty appeal. Fifth penalty appeal has not, yet, happened.
I've come more and more to like Lateu Mahoz, despite (or maybe because of?) his unconventional mannerisms. But this is weird so far. It might just be an elevated standard for PKs after he realized he had a very high bar on the first one, so I'm not sure it translates into having an equally high bar for SFP or VC, but who knows. If I were in the prediction business, I would say a 2CT is possible if this becomes a desperate situation for either team in the final few minutes. 1-0 Italy is probably the best thing he can hope for at this point...
I would surmise that the bad call in the NI/Sui match is the reason for the seemingly high bar for a PK in this match. He doesn't want to get the same degree of invective that Hategan received.(not just on BS!). PH
The mannerisms and manhandling of the players are a bit much IMO. Anyone who did this in a lower level match almost anywhere in the world would not get very far. Even the verbal sparring is getting close to the line as well, although I don't mind that as much as I do the dramatics. But having said all that, he is keeping reasonable control of a potentially very volatile match in an intimidating environment! PH
If this ends without more controversy, it'll once again show how errors of omission are treated very differently than errors of commission. It'll still be a talking point, but not nearly to the level if we had a NIR/SUI type error in this game.
The ball bounced back onto the field where the keeper was, near the goal area, and the keeper smashed it away. You could see it quickly before the camera cut away.
I think it will be no less of a talking point than the NIR/SUI incident, if not even more because of the number of errors and the magnitude of the game. This game could seriously damage Mateu Lahoz's chance for the World Cup.
I am watching the replay and just now at minute 15. Yeah, one penalty each so far. The ultimate winner on this match? The fan. The commentators are excellent. about Chiellini after a hard foul barely 2 minutes after receiving a caution: "Is he stupid?!?" Pure gold, saying exactly what I was thinking.
Just from the first two news outlets I checked, neither of which is a referee blog: --- A series of controversial penalty decisions by Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz -- none was awarded -- were the story of the game. ... And now we have the catalogue of penalty appeals during this Italy-Sweden clash, all of which were overruled by Lahoz. Sweden had two strong shouts for handball rejected in the first half in the San Siro, but television replays suggested that both should have been given. Similarly, Italy were denied twice by Lahoz after fouls on Marco Parolo and Matteo Darmian. Ludwig Augustinsson's challenge on Parolo may have been a 50-50 call, but Darmian was clearly foulded by Mikael Lustig. Lahoz did not have access to the VAR system, so he had to make a decision on one rushed view of each incident. As we saw during the Confederations Cup earlier this year, VAR is not flawless and there are still kinks to be ironed out. But even in its most basic form, it would surely be better than the status quo, which sees officials castigated for honest mistakes and teams denied a place at the World Cup as a consequence. http://www.espnfc.us/blog/the-match...-beat-azzurri-on-aggregate-to-reach-world-cup --- Clasificación Mundial 2018 - Malas decisiones del árbitro español Los cuatro penaltis que se 'comió' Mateu Lahoz El partido entre Italia y Suecia no pudo dársele peor a Mateu Lahoz. El colegiado español no vio cuatro penaltis, dos en cada área. Y, en los cuatro casos, las dos selecciones tuvieron motivos suficientes para reclamar las respectivas penas máximas. La primera llegó en el área de Suecia. Parolo trató de controlar un balón y Augustinsson, en su intento por anticiparse, acabó trabando al jugador italiano. Varios jugadores italianos se fueron como posesos hacia el colegiado español, que indicó con sus brazos que siguiera el juego. Apenas se llevaban unos minutos de partido y San Siro ya se echaba encima del árbitro español. Apenas unos minutos más tarde la polémica se cambió de área. Darmian cortó un envío con la mano claramente despegada del cuerpo y que pudo poner la clasificación para Italia aún más cuesta arriba. Sin embargo, Mateu también optó por no señalar. nada. Era el segundo penalti que se iba al limbo. Justo a la media hora de juego llegó otra acción decisiva y otra decisión fallida. Barzagli volvía a cortar un balón dentro del área con el brazo. Forsberg se quejaba amargamente y Mateu optaba por no señalar nada y amonestar al delantero sueco. El recital de errores continuó en la segunda mitad cuando Lustig arrolló a Darmian tras controlar un balón dentro del área. Mateu vio una mano del jugador italiano previa a ese clarísimo penalti pero nadie más que él vio esa acción supuestamente ilegal. http://www.marca.com/futbol/mundial/2017/11/13/5a09fd47ca4741a00b8b4672.html --- Are you sure the NIR/SUI incident got more coverage than this?