Match #34 Sweden : Poland Wednesday, 23 June 2021 19:00 local time (12:00 EDT) Saint Petersburg Referee: Michael Oliver (ENG) AR1: Stuart Burt (ENG) AR2: Simon Bennett (ENG) Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor (ENG) Video Assistant Referee: Chris Kavanagh (ENG) AVAR 1: Christian Dingert (GER) AVAR 2: Lee Betts (ENG) AVAR 3: Stuart Attwell (ENG)
He's done well, but not too challenging a game. AR1 had a nice offside decision denying an earlier Poland goal.
Really impressed with Michael Oliver's performance. Perfect synthesis of verbal warnings and cards in disciplinary measures; mutual player-ref respect was very visible too. KO stage appointment is a must for him! Three interesting penalty appeals (50', 52', 57') https://streamable.com/r7ky86 Well-seen offside call by Stuart Burt, no goal to Poland (65') https://streamable.com/uzfebf
I'll have to watch this game. Personally, I've always rated Oliver higher than Taylor in the Premier League and Taylor just slightly higher than Oliver in UEFA. Granted that Oliver had a tough stretch (by his standards) from Project Restart through the Villa game where he had a pretty dodgy send-off (this included the Merseyside Derby with the Pickford/Van Dijk play). But for me, he's definitely a QF level (at least) referee for major UEFA competitions.