Match #50 (Round of 16) Argentina : Australia Saturday, 3 December 2022 22:00 local time (14:00 EST) Al Rayyan Referee: Szymon MARCINIAK (POL) AR1: Pawel Sokolnicki (POL) AR2: Tomasz Listkiewicz (POL) Fourth Official: Mario Escobar (GUA) Fifth Official: Kathryn Nesbitt (USA) VAR: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL) AVAR (1): Marco Fritz (GER) Offside AVAR (2): Alessandro Giallatini (ITA) Support AVAR (3): Benoît Millot (FRA) Stand-by Offside AVAR (4): Ciro Carbone (ITA)
Not related to refereeing, but the overlay graphic showed Argentina were issued a red card right at kick-off. I should count heads; maybe they're playing a man short to make the game interesting!
5' - That probably is handling (unnaturally bigger), but not clearly inside the area and so not reviewable.
If the kind of fouls we are seeing so far are indicative of the rest of the game this could be spicy.
I definitely underestimated the difficulty of this game, a tricky and physical Argentina against a scrappy and physical Australia. Great management 34', "Eflath-like" : )
Saying his name seems to have conjured something! Edit: Actually, looks like the appointment was published beforehand. So I can't take credit.
62' - That can only be a trailing leg that catches nothing but the player... and no YC. Really surprised that was (apparently) accepted by the Australians, even if the amount of force imparted was low.
75' - Objectively that's probably reckless, but Argentina seem happy to forget because of the advantage.
76' Passed on a delayed reckless caution with studs to the top of the foot. Adds to a couple of other passed cautions earlier in the game.
84' That's about as close to the line as you can get with contact to the head without expecting a yellow card.