UEFA Women's Champions League 2022/23

Non Chelsea fans asking for Barcelona to rout Chelsea, and Barcelona fans calling for Aitana to show up like last time vs Chelsea. I rate her a lot, and she did play well vs Chelsea. However, who's going to replicate Martens, who was deep in her bag the whole entire first half of that final? Every single Barcelona goal featured an elite bit of play from Martens that was critical in buildup (goals 2-4) or that helped to force Chelsea into disarray (the 1st goal).

 

I liked her first best. The pressure must have been immense. Mjelde has scored some high profile penalties for Norway too. Euro 2013 semifinal shoot-out against Denmark and against Australia in the last WWC (where her teammate tonight Sam Kerr skyed it.)

 

I don't usually watch womens football but that was quite exciting! Anybody that doesn't think that was a penalty don't know what they're talking about!! She was CLEARLY tripped up by her right leg! VAR was obviously going to come to the right decision.

I was surprised at the intensity of the women, in fact Lyon were bordering on downright 'dirty' - that Van de Donk needs somebody to kick her back! I might watch another game sometime.

 

That's the difference between Groenen and Van de Donk; Groenen rarely goes into "dirty" while Van de Donk ventures into that territory with some regularity. If VAR could give out yellow cards, would Van de Donk have gotten one for that contact with Leupolz? I was shocked by that amount of blood.

 

Karchaoui, of course, didn't dive.

But, apart from that, we're looking at the same kind of event: a decision by the referee (call or not-call) is reversed by the VAR, despite not having the nature of "clear and obvious" mistake that would require the VAR to intervene, as it's shown by the fact that even after watching and re-watching the slow-motion replays of the respective actions, we're still here debating.

James, as soon as she felt the slightest half-touch by an OL's DF, fell down out of desperation, since she couldn't shoot or cross anymore and, at the last minute of additional time, diving was all she could try. The field referee, seeing the action at normal speed, didn't take the bait; the VAR, watching the same action at a slow motion that warps all of the assessments about what's a real push and what isn't, took the bait with all of the fishing rod.

Frankly, it was a travesty, if you ask me. I wouldn't have had problem in giving a clear PK to OL at the last minute: this one was anything but a clear PK.

Edit: I would be curious to know what they're saying about this action on the referee forum: maybe later I am going to give a look.

 

I guess I just didn’t notice a dive. I noticed James’ right leg getting knocked into her left, and that caused her to fall. Regardless, Van de Donk not getting sent off was very much questionable in my opinion, and if she had been, things might have played out quite differently.

 

Given the circumstances, I think PSG made a good account of themselves over the two legs. That being said, how they conceded today is still quite frustrating to me. First, Baltimore with a poor pass. If it had been Martens with the giveaway trying to find Baltimore, I don’t think that goal would have happened because Baltimore would have tracked Popp down. Hamraoui knew Popp was there but got dragged towards the ball and I guess just assumed Martens had Popp. Why though? We’re talking about Martens; we’re not talking about Fazer, Baltimore, or Groenen. Just poor communication, and this stuff was an issue in the second half vs Montpellier on the weekend as well. Hamraoui can contribute well often enough offensively with her shooting and long passing, but she really hasn’t been an effective anchor in front of the back line lately.

 

To me this was a classic case of a constructed penalty. If the defender offers you a chance to go down, then you go down. There was no need for Becho to be so tight on James, who was turning away from goal. Carpenter was there to cover as well. A mistake that Lyon paid heavily for.

 

She didn't "fall down' she was CLEARLY tripped.

 

So CLEARLY that many, seeing it live, had the same reaction described by @shlj here below:

If you want, we can debate if she was tripped or not: what's much less debatable is that it was a "clear" foul (when a foul is "clear", everyone should agree about it, especially in the neutral crowd. For your information, I was a neutral viewer and I had no particular horse in this race: if, in the penalty shootout, it looked like I was rooting for OL, it was only because I felt like they had been robbed by that particular call).

 

VAR called the referee over to take a look at the play, after she had made no call. Based on everything I've read about these situations, referees rarely go against what the VAR people think. So, yea, VAR made the call---because she didn't. And of course, VAR is very arbitrary: we see plays in the box that should be reviewed and are not--a few days ago a clear handball in the box in some game and no review (!)---and then other times they go back and get their magnifying glasses out and decide to call the ref over. I'm convinced VAR should only be used to review goals/off-sides and whether the ball has crossed the line or not. Other than that, mothball it.

 

Well the referee DID give the penalty! VAR simply pointed out that she had missed a clear foul!!! That's what it's there for! VAR does NOT give penalties!

 

She WAS tripped, tripping somebody up in the box is a foul, If there was no trip then a penalty simply wouldn't have been given.

If it wasnt a foul then perhaps you can explain to me why VAR told the referee to go look at the monitor in the first place and why after looking at the monitor the referee subsequently awarded the penalty I would be interested to hear your theory!?

 

2:47:15 to 2:47:17 time index you can see her right leg at her behind calf to knee area being pushed and force her right leg to be clipped into her left leg. And you see her right foot shaking just that instant of contact. Too me that's a penalty.


And same thing at 2:48:16 to 2:48:17 from different angle where the Lyon player has her knee into Jame's.

 

Yeah can't get too close to the player like that even if its the final minute or so in the penalty box. Have to trust your other teammates and gk to prevent the goal.

 

Oh come on. Thats enough to force your right leg to mix or tumble into your left when you run. Even a slight bump can throw your off especially into the leg part. .

 

I'll answer you with two quotes from the referee's forum here on BigSoccer (people who actually directed games normally post there), showing two different takes about the PK:

As you can see, the two posters don't agree about the foul, and this, in itself, should make it obvious that the foul wasn't as clear as you claim.

But what the two posters agree about it's that the action didn't seem to meet the requirement of being a "Clear and Obvious" mistake, thus allowing VAR to intervene.

My theory is exactly this: VAR (and, mind, this part is in the rules themselves, not in my mind) should only chime in when a clear and obvious mistake has been made, not everytime they think a mistake could have been made. The fact that this action created so much debate, not only between the contenders (that's obvious for any action) but even between neutral people (like me, for instance), it's in itself a sign that the possible referee's mistake wasn't clear enough to allow VAR's intervention.

 

She was tripped, tripping somebody up is a foul, tripping them in the box is a penalty! That's the rule of law, she was tripped by her right leg, NOBODY in the game with neutral interests is debating whether it was a penalty or not NOBODY, the only people 'debating' it are people with Lyon sympathies, it was the last action of the game, it was hard to take BUT that doesn't make a stonewall penalty a non call.

 

Clear as day!

 

I am happy that my name is now set as Nobody, I am out there with Ulysses in that. For records, I don't have any special sympathy for OL. If anything, I could be against them because they twice eliminated an Italian team from the WCL in back-to-back years.

Edit: only now (yes, I am so naive that I use to ignore affiliations and assume everyone is just being above that while talking) I notice that you indicate Chelsea FC as your favourite club in your profile; and you are accusing others or not being neutral: the pot calling the kettle black!

 

WCL 2022-2023 results : French clubs 0 - 1 VAR/Refeering

Waiting now for Barca to punish the cheaters and bring back Chelsea to their rightful place, OUT
Wish Arsenal will beat this weak and lucky WOB.

 

It was an obvious and blatant penalty, initially missed by the referee but rightly called by VAR and ultimately the referee, nobody involved in that game is disputing it, who I support is irrelevant to this.
In fact if Chelsea was not my team I seriously doubt I would have been watching the women's Champions League in the first place. Women's football is a very new thing 'over here', interest peaked by the (currently) very talented ladies national team, I thought I'd give it a go, as of yet I don't 'feel' an affiliation with Chelsea women as I do the men - I am NOT however like 'some' guys who scoff at women playing football either! I thought the women were skilful, committed and entertaining to watch.