Chasing the game against a more highly ranked opponent, the player’s shot bounced over the line but the officials don’t see it and you end up losing the match. Frank Lampard in 2010 and now Devic again tonight. But this is where the similarities end…

England 1-0 Ukraine

Yellow cards: Gerrard, Cole (England) Tymoshchuk, Rakitskiy, Shevchenko (Ukraine)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)

With England 1-0 up through a Wayne Rooney goal, Ukraine saught to find an equaliser from a counter-attack.

Now the initial ball to Artem Milevskiy comes to him when he is in an offside position, a fact not spotted by the assistant referee.

He is well positioned to see this although in his defence, long balls are more difficult to call offside as the ball’s direction and eventual recepient is less clear.

Nonetheless, play continues and Milevskiy eventually finds Marko Devic whose shot deflects off John Terry and lands just over the line, before Terry hurried swipes it clear.

They are multiple elements to this. First, if you take the whole attacking move and simply define it as legitimate or illegal, you have to say the offside makes the end result (albeit 60 or so yards down the pitch) of an England free-kick from their subsequent breakaway the “correct” outcome.

However what we have actually seen there is two refereeing mistakes. We’ve dealt with the offside but I know want to discuss the additional referees (ARs); that is the referees who stand by/behind the goal.

There are a number of misconceptions that I have heard from the media and fans about these officials. Firstly that they are only there to judge whether a ball is over the line and nothing else, this is false. They are there to assist with any relevant incident from a penalty claim, violent conduct off the ball or goal-line decisions.

Secondly the fact the ARs are consistently criticised for “not signalling”. As in “What are the additional referees there for? He hasn’t signalled anything to the referee.” The communication is primarily via headset.

While specific and trained hand signals exist between referee and assistant referees (also know as linesman), no such protocol exists between ARs and the referee.

As such, rather than raise his arms in the air, the additional referee will simply speak his reaction (no goal, foul etc.) Finally, I have heard some suggest that these ARs act now as arbitors on all manner of decisions and that the referee almost needs to get permission from them to give a decision. This of course, is also false.

The mistake the AR does in this incident is to – rather unwisely – not move his head past the post to follow the ball. I suppose the common logic would be that if you stand directly face-on with the post then if you see the whole of the ball to the right of it, you know it is a goal.

But this falls down given that from that distance away, at least half a foot either way will be obscured by the post due to complicated issues of visual perception etc which are too tedious to go into here. To get an example, hold a piece of paper side-on in front of you. You don’t see a thin strip excluding the vision of what is behind it but a sort of askew perspective of one or both sides of what is on the paper itself.

Regardless, it may interest you to know that officials have trained for this tournament by having balls random dropped around a goal-line while they watch and must guess correctly or face a foreit of press-ups. This was designed to train the eye, not just of ARs but of referees themselves.

That Kassai did not see it either is a shame, but then again, one would expect him to defer to the AR in this situation.

I have had twitter discussions as to how aggrieved Ukraine can feel given that Milevskiy is offside to begin with, especially its merits with relation to the Lampard strike.

I think realistically that had the goal been given that England fans would feel frustrated BUT not as frustrated as Ukraine fans if the player had been onside AND the goal had still been ruled out.

One has to remember that there was still a lot of work for the Ukraine offence to do after the offside before the “goal” could be struck. That said, ifs buts and maybes a 1-1 scoreline wouldn’t have changed Ukraine’s third spot in the group and the group winner and runner-up would have also remained the same.

Usually I discuss other incidents in the match but this weighed so heavily over the game that other details are likely to be considered small-fry. A few bookings here and there from cynical challenges and a bit of gamesmanship from England players at the end (timewasting notably) were seized on by Kassai.

On a footballing note, it was a shame to see Andriy Shevchenko’s international career end in this way and he was booked with minutes remaining for what is termed a “striker’s tackle.”

Kassai controlled the rest of the match, seemed to be fair to both sides, allowed physical play where appropriate and was decisive for the most part. However – depending on high how profile it is made – the goal-line error may affect his chances of having a knock-out game.

Ref’s rating: 6/10

If you had said beforehand that Spain and Italy would qualify from this group, people would have shrugged and not thought much of it. Instead, a frenetic and tense end to Group C saw Spain within a Cassilas glove and Italy a despairing Buffon parry of going out. But more controversy was to follow…

Spain 1-0 Croatia

Yellow cards: Strinic, Corluka, Jelavic, Rakitic, Srna, Mandzukic (Croatia)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

As they always seem to do in recent years, despite a dogged opponent, a few nervous moments and increasing pressure, Spain won out with a narrow victory.

Stark had to have his eyes on stalks to regulate play with both sides pressing each other and not afraid of going in with a tackle. However both he and the addtional referee behind the goal have to answer for an incident after 27 minutes when Sergio Ramos went in studs showing on Mario Mandzukic.

This was undoubtedly a foul and it really is a question of inches about whether it should be a free-kick or a penalty. Doubtless, Stark was well positioned to see this but gave a corner to Slaven Bilic’s side. This indicates that he felt Ramos got the ball and presumably little of the man.

Regardless, Vedran Corluka was booked for his protestations, something at Stark’s own discretion and he is experienced enough for me to trust his judgement with dissent.

Darijo Srna joined his compatriot in the book just before half-time when he jumped over-aggresively with Sergio Busquets, catching him with an elbow.

After the break when David Silva was lumped to the floor by Ivan Strinic, Stark chose sensibly to play advantage and let Spain complete the attacking move before giving the Croatian defender a yellow when the ball next went out of play.

Stark is a very undemonstrable, uncomprimising presence. But sometimes it can help to have an official who may smile once in a while and remind a player that this is only a game and not oversee things as though you are a policeman managing a two sided protest.

That said however, we didn’t see any mass confrontations as in previous nights and players did behave themselves once a booking was hanging over them.

The real talking points came late on when first Corluka tried to reach a cross from a corner but was dragged down by Busquets, preventing him from getting any sort of elevation.

A caveat should be that Stark has to see this through a large conglomeration of players but this is no excuse for his additional referee behind the goal. Once again a penalty appeal went ignored.

This has been a feature of this tournament with just one spot-kick awarded so far. This a record for the group stages going back to Euro 1988 when there were half as many teams. I can only assume that an edict may have gone to referees either advising extra vigilance with awarding penalties or perhaps more cynically that it is harder for the media to create a storm over a spot-kick not being awarded than a wrong spot-kick being given.

Nonetheless, minutes later with the game nearing its end, Spain finally battered the Croats into submission when subsitute Jesus Navas waltzed in from an Andreas Iniesta pass to practically walk a ball into the net.

We have seen two goals like this in tournament before and once again the assistant was absolutely correct and followed precident to allow Spain a legitimate goal. But this was even trickier as their was not one close offside call, but two.

The ball from Cesc Fabregas finds Iniesta just onside as he is being played on by the back foot of a Croatian defender. Once again, to clarify, Navas himself while in an offside position is not “active” as he not involved in play at this time. I know that it is impossible to be “inactive” on a football pitch but based on heavy precedent, he is legal.

When Ineista squares the ball to Navas, the ball is played very slightly backwards to him meaning is now active and onside. Goal for Spain and that was it, Croatia were out.

Mandzukic was a trio of Croatian players who were then cautioned with the game as good over. He received his caution for a barge on Alvaro Arbeloa and shortly afterwards Nikica Jelavic was yellowed for deliberate handball as he tried any method possible to try and win the ball back.

Finally Ivan Rakitic was booked with seconds left for dissent. Which pretty much sums Stark’s “bad cop” approach. At least with “good cop” mentality, the players are happy to shake your hand after the game.

For some referees this Euros, they’ve got the big decisions right, yet controlled the match itself poorly. For Stark it was the opposite. He needed a bit more gumption from the additional referees and perhaps an extra backbone to award a penalty against the defending champions.

Overall though, Stark looked assured and unflustered, two excellent qualities to display as an official.

Ref’s rating: 6/10

@Euro2012Referee

We were finally at the crunch stage – two sides would go home, two would head to the quarters. Somehow the group was turned on its head with the hosts and group favourites going out and on a night of drama, the referees were certainly part of the action.

Greece 1-0 Russia

Yellow cards: Karagounis, Gekas (Greece) Aniukov, Zhirkov, Dzagoev, Pogrebniak (Russia)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)

Before tonight, Greece’s last European Championship win came in…2004. When they surprised favourites Portugal to win the thing. Tonight they were on their typically best form as underdogs, dumping out Dick Advocaat’s side with a captain’s goal from Giorgos Karagounis.

But that doesn’t begin to tell the story. After a back and forth first “act” of the match, Russia felt they should have had a penalty when the Greek skipper appeared to pull Roman Shirokov down in the area.

Replays showed that while Eriksson should have blown for a foul, the initial contact began outside the area so a free-kick should have resulted. However Shirokov’s “glasses gestures” to the lineman were unacceptable and technically could count as a bookable offence.

After the break, it was Karagounis appealing for a spot-kick. This time however, Eriksson made an even bigger error. Not only did he fail to spot the trip by Sergei Ignashevitch but he booked the Greek for diving.

Not only was this a bad call in the context of the match but it means Karagounis is suspended for the next match.

Minutes later Yuri Zhirkov did go into the book as he dragged down Dimitris Salpingidis as he ran towards goal and this time the official was correct. As he was for Alan Dzagoev’s reckless challenge slightly afterwards on Georgios Tzavellas.

Zhirkov himself was bodychecked on the edge of the area by Salpingidis with 17 minutes remaining but Eriksson didn’t whistle which reflected his below average foul detection.

Eriksson did have to deal with two sets of players who were difficult to control and had no fear in going in strong but he perhaps tried to match this by being over zealous himself whereas a calmer approach may (I repeat, may) have worked.

However he just about managed to deal with a standard multi-player skirmish involving a crowd of players after 86 minutes, perhaps helped by the fact Russia were in no mood to have play slowed down.

In stoppage time Pavel Pogrebnyak was cautioned for deliberate handball when he brought down a through ball using him arms. While his intention does look 100%, his body position in sticking out both arms as the ball comes towards him does him no favours so we will Eriksson the benefit of the doubt.

Jose Holebas got the final yellow of the game with seconds remaining, presumably for time wasting but by then it was too late for Russia and Eriksson ended the match.

This was a tricky contest to oversee, no doubt. And despite some costly errors, Eriksson just about came through it okay. It’s questionable whether we’ll see him brought back for the final stages (though with increased probability now Sweden are out) but he at least proved in effectively a knock-out game that he could handle the pressure and madness around him.

Ref’s rating: 6/10

Czech Republic 1-0 Poland

Yellow cards: Limbersky, Plasil, Pekhart (Czech Republic) Murawski, Polanski, Wasilewski, Blaszczykowski, Perquis (Poland)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Craig Thomson (Scotland)

So in the teeming rain and in a rather drab way, the first of the host nations goes home. Or rather, stays home.

In match that seemed to collapse into stodginess in the second half, Thomson blew for a massive total of 42 fouls overall.

In a game of figuratively two halves, an open and free flowing first 45 gave way to stop-start second-half and Thomson did not help matters.

He seemed to be constantly revising his ideas of what merited a booking and lost his way in the second half with player disputes and frustration growing.

With thunder and lightning hanging in the air, making some anticipate another suspension as happened between France and Ukraine, the weather just about managed to restrain itself.

With 11 minutes on the clock, David Limbersky got the game’s first booking when he got little of the ball in the challenge against Polish captain Jakub Blaszczykowski.

The card-count was evened up ten minutes later when Rafal Murawski brought down the goalless Milan Baros and it was probably justified.

Thomson’s assistants had to be on the ball metaphorically when they flagged Theodor “Don’t Call Me Haile” Gebre Selassie offside midway through the half correctly.

However clearly after the break, contributed slightly by the fact that now both teams knew they needed to win with Greece leading the other game, the match became a lot more bad-tempered.

First Eugen Polanski went in with a ridiculous challenge on Vaclav Pilar which was the definition of a yellow card and he duly received one from the Scottish official. The Poland player was subsituted soon after to avoid the risk of a second booking.

Limbersky tried to carve open the host’s defence on the hour mark but was fouled badly by Marcin Wasilewski just outside the penalty box and was rightly cautioned.

But then Thomson decided to zip away yellow card. Dariusz Dudka escaped punishment for an elbow on at least one Czech player. With the shipload of free-kicks the Poles were given away, a lot of their players should have been booked.

Things boiled with a few minutes remaining when Jaroslav Plasil decided to wander round the pitch in a rather sluggish manner when being substituted off.

The Poles took an obvious dislike to this and decided – rather stupidly as it delayed the game further – to get involved and try to “help” Plasil off the field.

In the resulting melee, Thomson booked both Plasil and Blaszczykowski but then failed to book other Polish players who had a physical reaction to Czech time-wasting.

Yes, time-wasting is a bookable offence but that does not give opposition players carte-blanche to hurry the dawdlers anyway they see fit.

Damien Perquis directed his pent-up fury at Jan Rezek as he broke in stoppage time from a Polish corner and joined his team-mates in Thomson’s book.

When Wasilewski shoved over Tomas Pekhart with seconds remaining (the Czech player had purposefully trapped the ball under his foot to prevent play restarting), Thomson should have given the Polish defender his marching orders but simply booked Pekhart instead.

And so ended a rather choatic group – Thomson did not cover himself in glory as the match drifted away from him as it did for the losers tonight, Russia and Poland.

Ref’s rating: 5/10

@Euro2012Referee

Things got electric on day 8 of the tournament with strikes on and off the pitch. The officials had to be on their game as both the weather and the scorelines swung back and forth on a hectic evening.

France 2-0 Ukraine

Yellow cards: Menez, Debuchy, Mexes (France) Selin, Tymoshchuk (Ukraine)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (Netherlands)

It began with a loud bang and temporarily interruption on the TV feed. Had a cheeky Ukranian fan let off a smoke bomb during the French national anthem? No, it was an enormous thunderstorm which caused gallons of water to soak the players, officials and fans unlucky enough to be in the exposed seats.

As fork lightning continued to strike and with the “game” (complete with plenty of slipping and sliding) only five minutes old, ref Kuipers suspended play and led the teams off.

This is almost unprecedented in major international tournaments. I say almost because at the World Cup in 1974, the final second group game between West Germany and Poland was delayed by a rain sodden pitch but went ahead the same day despite Polish complaints.

On this occasion, the suspension lasted the best part of an hour with UEFA officials frantically talking to Kuipers, allegedly putting him under significant pressure to restart soon.

It must be noted that due to TV rights and advertising, UEFA knew a postponement or having two games run into another would cause a loss of funds for themselves and their affiliates. Had the bad weather continued, Kuipers would have been put in a quandary by UEFA between prioritising the safety of the players and officials and risking financial loss for the tournament.

In the end, thanks to some excellent rake work by grounds staff, the game was able to restart with the pitch and the conditions in a satisfactory state.

Both sides were clean early on as both effectively warmed into the match but with France beginning to get on top and creating pressure as half-time drew near, Ukraine broke away from French a corner.

Jeremy Menez dragged back Andriy Shevchenko as he tried to develop the counter attack and Kuipers duly booked the French midfielder. There was little in it and it probably wasn’t deserving of a caution.

However in first-half stoppage time, Menez caught Yevgen Selin on the ankle late and should have been given a second yellow. Kuipers has effectively tried to make two wrongs equal a right. Yes, from an objective point of view Menez should have ended the first-half with a booking but if you have given a player a yellow and you doubt your decision, you still must send him off if he commits a second cautionable offence.

After the break and in between the two Gallic goals, Selin himself was booked for a classic “not as bad as it looked” tackle on Adil Rami. His slide tackle looked a little reckless but contact was quite minimal.

It seemed as the game drew on, Kuipers was saving up all his cards for the last ten minutes as he suddenly started to dole them out quite frequently. He was correct to yellow Mathieu Debuchy when he barged Yevhen Konoplyanka to the floor on 79 minutes, as he was to book Philip Mexes shortly after for a late tackle on Artem Milevskiy.

And there was little argument with his decision to caution Anatoliy Tymoshchuk with a few minutes left when he got very little on the ball when challenging Marvin Martin. So what’s the problem?

Kuipers had been letting these tackles go for the rest of match either ignoring them or letting the player off with a warning. You never got a sense that he was fully in control and adhering to an objective standard of foul play.

I criticised Kuipers for his inconsistent and somewhat indecisive performance when taking charge of Ireland against Croatia and I can’t say there has been too much improvement. It’s a shame but this is likely to be last game Kuipers officials at Euro 2012.

Ref’s rating: 6/10

England 3-2 Sweden

Yellow cards: Milner (England) Mellberg, Jonas Olsson, Svensson (Sweden)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

Officials are instructed to adapt their style to that of the game and as many observers have noted, due to number of players that do or did ply their trade in England who were on the field (23 out of the 27 players who featured for the record) this had the feel and tempo of a Premier League game.

The traits that any referee should expect from a Premiership game include physical challenges, fast pacing and plenty of Route 1 football. And with two tall pony-tailed strikers at either end, that is exactly what we saw.

England’s beanpole Andy Carroll was the first to grab a goal after 23 minutes and Skomina’s assistants correctly spotted that he was onside for his header.

The Slovenian man in the middle felt the full force of the Liverpool striker’s power when he inadvertantly struck the ball at Skomina as the game approached half-time. But both saw the funny side and quickly made up.

However he failed to book Carroll when he came in rather ugly from behind on Kim Kallstrom at the beginning of the second-half which was more than deserving of a booking. Further punishment followed as the Swedes equalised from this free-kick.

Skomina did take the name of an England player just before the hour when James Milner clipped Martin Olsson as he sprinted forward and once again Eric Hamlen’s side scored from the resulting set-piece.

Goalscorer Olof Mellberg was cautioned shortly after for taking down Carroll as the game became more and more physical. His teammate Jonas Olsson joined him in the book ten minutes later for obstructing a kick from keeper Joe Hart.

With time running out and now England ahead, Anders Svensson was booked for what looked like dissent when Skomina had awarded Roy Hodgson’s team a freekick for handball.

Overall Skomina did a decent job with a few wrong calls here and there. He wasn’t quite as good as when he oversaw Denmark v Netherlands but in a frenetic game, there cannot be too many complaints. I don’t think we’ll see him at the sharp end of Euro 2012 however.

Ref’s rating: 7/10

@Euro2012Referee

As we enter the crunch stage of the competition with reputations and tournament futures on the line, the referees are put under the spotlight even more. Wednesday was no different. In the group of death, who managed to survive?

Portugal 3-2 Denmark

Yellow cards: Meireles, Ronaldo (Portugal) Poulsen, Jacobsen (Denmark)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Craig Thomson (Scotland)

In a scintilating match, Thompson calmly took a step back from the action and only stopped play when necessary. The changing scoreline helped – no side was ever in the mood to cynically stop play and display “anti-football” with one or both sides chasing the game throughout.

Double goalscorer Nicklas Bendtner was lucky to escape a booking after 18 minutes when he came with a tackle on Portugal’s Pepe, treading on his foot in the process.

Pepe gave the Iberian nation a 1-0 lead but his team were at risk of a red card seven minutes when Raul Meireles deliberately handballed as the Danish tried to breakthrough the Portugese backline.

This is obviously a yellow card offence at the bare minimum which Thomson duly showed. However as the image demonstrates, a Portugese teammate is also alongside him and the incident takes place over 30 yards from the goal itself so Meireles is not the last man. Had his handball been the one barrier between the Danes and the Portugese goal, a sending off would have been appropriate.

We had a similar situation to Jelavic’s goal against Ireland on Sunday when Bendtner was played through to head in the equaliser. Again, when the ball is played through to Michael Krohn-Dehli, Bendtner is offside. However is facing away from goal and static so is not “active”.

Therefore when the ball is eventually sent through to him by Krohn-Dehli, the Danish forward is now onside and the goal stands. People seeking consistency from officials can look at these two separate incidents and rest easy that the law was applied in the same way both times.

After the break, subsitute Jakob Poulsen was booked for a cynical tackle on fancy winger Nani. The Danes appealed for a penalty as they sought for a leveller at 2-1 behind but the ball had struck the hip area of the defender.

After the Scandinavian’s had made it 2-2, they did start to increase their physical play and Lars Jacobsen just about deserved a caution when took down Ronaldo, getting a bit too much man and too little ball.

The charismatic Cristiano Ronaldo who have a rather unfortunate time of things in front of goal finally let his petulance get the better of him in stoppage time with his side in the lead when he clipped Daniel Agger and received the match’s final booking.

Thomson communicate well with the players and while he did perhaps whistle too frequently in the second half, he did a decent job. But again, this was a relatively straight-forward game to oversee so judgement is reserved.

Ref’s rating: 7/10

Germany 2-1 Netherlands

Yellow cards: Boateng (Germany) de Jong, Willems (Netherlands)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)

In a grudge match and a very important group game for both sides, Eriksson did well to keep tempers intake. Especially from a Dutch team that had reports that it was imploding from within (we’ll come to Arjen Robben later).

Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted Eriksson point to the “Respect” badge on his shirt before the game and this was heeded, even if it was not a direct result of the official’s reminder.

Joachim Loew’s side appealed for a penalty when dynamo Mesut Ozil was brought down in the area but it was invalid as the German player had run into a Dutch player.

At the other end, Robin van Persie was lucky to avoid a booking as he appeared to use his arms to shield the ball down from a through ball but could only force a corner from his run towards goal.

As Bastian Schweinsteiger sent Mario Gomez through to score his first goal, their were suspicions of offside but replays showed Gomez was onside by a good margin and had timed his run well.

Three minutes later Gomez could have broken through to grab a second but Eriksson’s assistants wrongly flagged, denying the striker a second goal. Gomez made up for this on 38 minutes with a gloriously struck shot to give his side breathing distance.

Thomas Muller was fortunate to escape a caution just before the break when he sythed down Mark van Bommel from behind but the incident was not spotted by the officials.

In the second-half, Eriksson had less to do with the Germans slowing down the tempo and the ball being increasingly stuck in midfield. The foul count went down as did Dutch chances of a comeback.

But when Van Persie pulled it back to 2-1, the Netherlands were obviously more desperate for possession. Nigel de Jong surprisingly got the first booking of the game after 80 minutes of play for going straight through from behind on German wingback Philip Lahm as the game’s intensity grew.

Try as Bert van Marwijk’s side, they could not sustain attacking momentum. Jerome Boateng was given a yellow with a few minutes remaining on the clock for time wasting putting him out of Die Mannschaft’s final group game against Denmark.

Jetro Willems, who had looked flustered all night by Germany’s pacy forwards, finally let his cynicism get the better of him as he clipped Muller and became the final player to be booked.

On a side note, we should brief discuss Arjen Robben’s premature exit from the game when he hurdled over the advertising hoardings on the far side of the field and chose to walk past the Oranje fans, removing his national team jersey as he went.

Law 3 of the FIFA rules dictates that while the entering substitute must come onto the field at the half-way line, the exiting sub may not. There is a simple reason for this – usually this is to take into account an injured player who may need to be removed from the pitch at any spot and so applying a rigorous exit procedure is inappropriate.

However susbstituted players remain under control of the referee even once they have left the field. Technically the FIFA guidelines specify:

The player being substituted receives the referee’s permission to leave the field of play, unless he is already off the field of play for reasons that comply
with the Laws of the Game

Under Law 12, “A player must be cautioned if in the opinion of the referee, he makes gestures which are provocative, derisory or inflammatory.” However removing the shirt is an unclear action. On the one hand, Robben may have been hot and sweaty and wanting to cool down, on the other hand it could be a “screw you” gesture to the fans/manager.

All things considered, Eriksson was probably right to ignore it. The Swede had a solid game; made easy by the players behaviour and lack of any real “hot potato” incidents. His foul detection was good for the most part.

You will never stop emotions running high on these occasions, all you can do is manage the effects of these emotions in a positive manner and Eriksson did a more than satisfactory job.

Ref’s rating: 7/10

@Euro2012Referee

Unfortunately most the disciplinary action and disputes took place off the pitch yesterday with some unpleasant scenes between Polish and Russian “fans.” Thankfully however the intense atmosphere did not spoil the game but had some refereeing decisions gone the other way, we could have seen two very different sets of results.

Czech Republic 2-1 Greece

Yellow cards: Rosicky, Jiracek, Kolar (Czech Republic) Torosidis, Kyriakos, Papadopoulos, Salpingidis (Greece)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Stephane Lannoy (France)

This was a much improved performance from the French official following his first match overseeing Germany’s victory over Portugal. His foul detection was better and kept control over the players (unless you exclude the moment when he tripped and fell, matching even the most notorious player for diving).

Neither the Czech’s or Greece escaped the 90 minutes without throwing in some rather ugly challenges. Tomas Rosicky got the game’s first yellow with a high boot on Giorgios Karagounis which in all honesty was accidental, his studs accidentally knocking in the Greek’s skipper’s head on the way down.

The Greek physio used his expertise of medical science to spray water on the subsequent gash before the Greek team had a measure of revenge when Vassilas Torosidis went in cynically on Vaclav Pilar, treading on his foot and earning the matche’s second booking.

The players were not giving the refere much choice with tackles coming in. Goalscorer Petr Jiracek caught Giannis Maniatis after 35 minutes with a silly challenge that demanded a caution.

If Lannoy had a good game, his assistants were doing just as well. They spotted that Giorgos Fotakis was offside by a matter of inches when he headed just before half-time with his side 2-0 down.

Lannoy did unfairly book frontman Dimitris Salpingidis when he got most the ball in a fair challenge against David Limbersky and was penalised but sadly that may have more to do with an unwillingness of officials to tolerate feet first challenges on the ground rather than Lannoy’s poor vision.

Just prior to this Kyriakos Papadopoulos was also yellowed for taking down Milan Baros taking the card count to five.

Having pulled one back from Petr Cech’s mistake, the Greeks continued to push for an equaliser and were wrongly flagged offside on 72 minutes. With the clock ticking down, Lannoy punished Czech time wasting when Daniel Kolár was being subsituted. I think we need to see a little more of this as you can bet your bottom dollar that it will increasingly become a factor as we enter the final group games and begin the knock-out stages.

Overall Lannoy proved his credentials and while this was not a brilliant performance, he has put a marker down for the refereeing committee to consider give him another game.

Ref’s rating: 7/10

Poland 1-1 Russia

Yellow cards: Lewandowski, Polanski (Poland) Denisov, Dzagoev (Russia)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

This match required an experienced and confident official to take charge of a match played in a feverish and somewhat antagonistic atmosphere and Stark handled the occasion well.

Fortunately despite the trouble outside the stadium pre and post-match there were no reasons for him to suspend the game itself.

He turned down Alexander Kerzhakov’s appeals for a penalty early on correctly when replays confirmed a Polish defender got the ball cleanly. When the hosts attacked themselves, his assistants were sharp to rule out Eugen Polanski’s effort.

With Russia 1-0 up however, they had claims for a spot-kick when Alan Dzagoev was barged down in the box. It wasn’t exactly stonewall but the assistant strangely flagged against Dirk Advocaat’s team.

As tensions began to migrate onto the field, a small scuffle developed between Robert Lewandowski and Igor Denisov. But Stark nipped this in the bud by taking both their names into his book and there no further incidents of this nature.

This Stark’s strength – keep the game at arm’s length and give it a chance to breath but come in decisively when players contravene the rules. He showed his no-nonsense attitude when Dzagoev spoke out of turn following a foul given against him and was booked for dissent.

With the Poles pushing for what would have been a memorable winner, Polanski’s over enthusiastic challenge on Yuri Zhirkov ensured he didn’t escape the game without a yellow card and became the fourth and final player to be cautioned.

This was an excellent and subtle performance from Stark to prevent a potentially explosive encounter ever drifting into dangerous waters. By subtle I mean that he was able to influence the pace of the game to suit the scenario. He did need to rely on his assistants but they are as much responsible for good official’s performance as the official themselves.

It is not an understatement to say that Stark has put himself in contention for a final or semi-final game but time will tell if either of these opponents will make it to that stage too.

Ref’s rating: 9/10

@Euro2012Referee

The final unplayed group was in action on Monday so we’ve definitely seen the tournament winners play. Not all the referees have been in action yet though and it was a chance for two officials to showcase themselves in some very closely fought contests.

France 1-1 England

Yellow cards: Oxlade-Chamberlain, Young (England)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)

In this 1-1 stalemate, Rizzoli’s work was on the light side as England sat off and the majority of the game saw the ball pinged around in midfield between the two sides.

His foul detection was questionable – it felt more like he was blowing his whistle at scheduled intervals then making clear distinctions between clean physical play and law-breaking.

However it was admirable to see him trying to play as small a role as possible and certainly no one will be mentioning him in the newspaper’s the next day.

He has been criticised for not showing any bookings to French players but there were perhaps only or two comparable tackles to base on that standpoint.

The two yellows came either side of the break with youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain over exuberantly (and rather clumsily) going in late on pacey French wingback Mathieu Debuchy to earn a booking.

The other came when Ashley Young had a similarly delayed dive at Karim Benzema and Rizzoli rightly took his name.

The discussion point about Rizzoli is whether you like his style. Most neutrals would rather than an official miss a few fouls here and there but let the game flow and the players do the talking.

However I fear if he had’ve to make some big decisions today such as penalty calls, red cards or disputed goals, Rizzoli may have made a mistake.

That said, I can only judge on the performance in the game that happened so there is little to complain about.

Ref’s rating: 7/10

Ukraine 2-1 Sweden

Yellow cards: Kallstrom, Elm (Sweden)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)

Cakir is the youngest official at these finals and even the junior of veteran and national hero Andriy Shevcheko who entered the headlines for all the right reasons last night.

However despite Cakir’s age he has been refereeing in senior UEFA tournaments for four years and pretty much proved himself on the field during this game for his relaxed yet authoritative presence which takes some doing when dealing with the enigma of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And more seriously with a fervent atmosphere and two teams who did seem nervous and unsettled for parts of the game.

Returning to Sweden’s talisman, the biggest talking point (certainly had Ukraine failed to win) would have been his opening goal to give the Scandinavian’s the lead.

The actual challenge on Yevgen Selin by Mikael Lustig is not a foul and even though Selin stays down, the referee is not obligated to stop play. Officials must suspend the game if they feel there is a head or other serious injury but this did not appear to be the case.

In terms of a sportsmanship, some may argue Sweden should kick the ball out of play but others may say that there is a possibility Selin is play-acting and why should we let him prosper?

Either way, it is the official’s job to simply let the move go on and allow any entry of physios or Selin to leave the field once the ball is out of play.

The assist for Ibrahimovic’s goal came from Kim Kallstrom who also received the game’s first booking for a cynical challenge on Oleg Gusev to stop a counter-attack from the hosts.

Cakir did perhaps begin the second-half by being overly interfering with his whistle but beyond that he was flawless. As the game became stretched near the end Swedish youth Rasmus Elm was cautioned seven minutes from time for a silly tackle on Andrey Voronin when his side were chasing the game.

It’s true that he did penalise Erik Hamren’s side for more fouls but that was mainly a reflection of the play itself. He also played particular close attention to the added time, most of which was eaten up early on by a subsitution and an alleged Ukrainian injury; so the official sensibly extended it.

Overall it was an impressive performance from Cakir who I’m sure we’ll see again.

Ref’s rating: 8/10

@Euro2012Referee

A game with the most bookings in the tournament so far and hotly debated offside/onside goal. Such were the points of interest on day 3 of Euro 2012. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin.

Spain 1-1 Italy

Yellow cards: Alba, Arbeloa, Torres (Spain) Balotelli, Bonucci, Chiellini (Italy)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)

The last two World Cup winners faced off four years after meeting in a Euro 2008 quarter-final. It was level after 90 minutes then and so it proved today.

It was a highly physical game as the yellow card count demonstrates but was never petulant or dirty and the man in the middle eased off his whistle where appropriate.

Some neat calls from his assistants early on to flag Cesc Fabregas onside and Antonio Cassano off were both spot-on.

The bookmakers will not have been surprised to see perennial headline-maker Mario Balotelli receive the first booking of the game for a few repeated offences but he just about managed to behave himself for the rest of the game until he was subsituted.

The remaining six bookings came thick and fast in a 23 minute spell at the end of the game. First Leonardi Bonucci dived in recklessly on Andreas Iniesta which caused a minor fracas between a few players, mostly notably Spanish defender Jordi Alba.

Both players were booked for their part in the incident but while it was clear emotions were tense thankfully this boiled over into frenetic offensive football rather than futher argument and Kassai’s handling of the situation, stern but fair, helped that.

Iniesta was again the “victim” as he was taken down by Giorgio Chiellini while barging through towards goal ten minutes later.

Álvaro Arbeloa received a yellow after 84 minutes in an incident which TV cameras didn’t capture to well so it is difficult to judge.

However subsitute Fernando Torres who had caused the Azzuri some real worries since coming on was very fortunate to only be given a yellow when he caught Daniel De Rossi in the throat with an elbow.

The reasons why it was a yellow will only be revealed in the referee’s report – did Kassai not spot the full foul or did he feel this was more an overly physical attempt to get the ball rather than straight out violent conduct?

It is not entirely clear cut and so I will give Kassai the benefit of the doubt but Torres clearly had his lucky underpants on today.

Iniesta was yet again causing havoc amongst the Italian backline and drew what is coloquilly know as a professional foul from Christian Maggio. It rounded off a busy second half for the Hungarian offical who did well to keep on top of two committed teams without spoiling the spectacle. An impressive display all-round.

Ref’s rating: 9/10

Croatia 3-1 Republic of Ireland

Yellow cards: Modric, Kranjcar (Croatia) Andrews (Ireland)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (Netherlands)

So let’s jump straight into it – was Nikica Jelavic’s goal legitimate? The short answer is yes, but let’s look at why.

When the ball is played in from Luka Modric, Jelavic is offside at the first photo shows. However he is not “active”. A quick class recap of this is:

A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball
touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee,
involved in active play by:
• interfering with play or
• interfering with an opponent or
• gaining an advantage by being in that position

The classic argument comes that surely a player is attempting to gain an advantage by being in this position otherwise he would not be there. However during the first phase of play, Jelavic does not receive the ball, nor does any Croatian player actively try and give it to him. Thus he does not really gain an advantage as Croatia lose possession before it can be given to him.

His position also does not obscure the goalkeepers vision or movement, nor that of any other opponent. If in another scenario, the ball played in from Modric had struck an Irish player and rebounded to Jelavic, then he would be offside. But this does not happen as the Irish manage to block Modric’s forward ball.

This, with the change of possession and the change in the ball’s speed and movement, means another phase of play has been entered. The second phase.

The next touch then comes from Ireland’s Stephen Ward who fails with an attempted clearance and slices the ball to the feet of the Croatian and Everton striker.

As you may know, you are not offside if an opponent touches the ball towards you (this does not include deflections etc.) therefore Jelavic is not offside and the goal rightly stands.

That said however, that is not the end of the disputed calls in this match. Jelavic’s goal was of course to give Croatia the lead after Ireland had equalised through Sean St Ledger. However the freekick that equaliser came from was a very soft decision as there was minmum contact between Vedran Corluka and Kevin Doyle.

Kuipers was very quick to whistle through out the game, often for situations where a foul is quite questionable. He was not helped by at least two fans in the crowd unfairly blowing whistles of their own in such a way that appeared to be deliberately to confuse the players. Fortunately, this did not seem to have an effect.

After the break, the Dutch official did give the first caution of the game to Irish midfielder Keith Andrews for a mistimed sliding tackle on double goalscorer Mario Mandzukic.

Modric was next to go into the book deservedly when he came in late on Glenn Whelan and left the player flat on the floor.

Ten minutes later Irish fans again jeered Kuipers in frustration when he waved away claims for a penalty when striker Robbie Keane was taken down just in the penalty area.

Replays show Gordon Schildenfeld fails to the get the ball and the image shows Kuipers in a good position to see this. However he fails to spot the infringement and more concerningly neither does the assistant on the near touchline or behind the goal.

With the Irish struggling to create changes, substitute Niko Kranjcar took down another replacement player Jonathan Walters with seven minutes remaining to earn the third yellow of the game.

All things considered, it was a rather messy performance from Kuipers and despite his assistant’s excellent decision to let the second Croatian goal stand, he didn’t endear himself to either set of fans or the neutral.

Kuipers is known as a ref who is happy to show cards and there is nothing wrong with that but he will need to do better in his next game to reflect his strong reputation in his native land.

Ref’s rating: 5/10

@Euro2012Referee

Two very close games means refereeing decisions can sometimes be the difference between victory and defeat. Dutch manager Bert van Marwijk certainly feels his team were unfairly treated. But is he right?

Denmark 1-0 Netherlands

Yellow cards: S Poulsen, Kvist (Denmark) Van Bommel (Netherlands)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

The last time the Dutch played at an international tournment, they broke the record for the number of cards in a World Cup final. This time they were a little bit better behaved but just on that occasion, their head coach had something to say to the officials after the game.

Referee Skomina did blow for some rather soft free-kicks in the early stages for example when vintage winger Dennis Rommedahl went under a challenge after 20 minutes.

But by in large he controlled the game well, stepping in when he had to but trying to let play go on where possible. I still would’ve liked him to apply the advantage role even more than he did but sometimes that is difficult.

The dutch appealed for a spot-kick on 27 minutes, claiming handball from Simon Poulsen. Replays did show that the ball had skipped off his hand the assistant behind the goal is not in a position to give it and for the offence to apply, handball needs to be deliberate which is debatable here.

Into the second-half and Mark Van Bommel got his customary booking with a foul on Niki Zimling which was a correct call. Of course players like Van Bommel have a reputation but he had no excuses in this situation.

When Robin van Perise and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar both went for a ball with Danish goalie Stephan Andersen, Skomina blew for a foul from the Dutch forward. Goalkeepers are often over-protected by officials and this was the case here but Huntelaar had struck the free ball against a Danish player so the worst the Netherlands missed out on was a corner.

As the clock began to tick down, one could forgive the Danes for time wasting but Poulsen was rightly cautioned for dawdling over a throw-in and this seemed to stamp out repeat incidents from his team-mates.

William Kvist Jorgensen was booked for deliberate handball on 80 minutes outside the area but the biggest talking point came when his team-mate Lars Jacobsen handled the ball in the area with just a few minutes remaining.

The actual claim from Huntelarr comes when he kicks the Tango ball up onto Jacobsen’s arm which for me diminishes his arguments. At this point, the defender is not looking at the ball or the Dutch striker so this suggests the touch was accidental.

Skokima at this is ideally positioned to see the incident and waves it away. The fact is if fans call for this to be a penalty, we are likely to see two or three kicks per game – ball to hand is not an offence in the law and Skokima made the right the call.

Van Marwijk was convinced however. “”It is such a clear penalty, and then you likely get a draw,” he said, “”When there’s a penalty that doesn’t go in your favour, it’s unfortunate. But that’s part of the game.”

The Oranje must now go into their next two games under major pressure to win but their loss this time was to do with profligate finishing not refereeing decisions. Skokima has shown himself to be more than capable on this performance.

Ref’s rating: 8/10

Germany 1-0 Portugal

Yellow cards: Badstuber, Boateng (Germany) Coentrao, Postiga (Portugal)

Red cards: 0

Referee: Stephane Lannoy (France)

For the neutral, it was a disappointing to see this contest between two sides with a host of creative players break down into a stalemate between two sets of midfielders for the first two thirds of the game.

This leant the match a physical edge which I don’t feel Lannoy fully addressed. In all he blew for 32 fouls, the highest in the competition so far. Often these were simply 50/50 clashes between players and made a bitty game even more stop-start.

The game was also stopped briefly in the early stages with German fans throwing balls of paper at Portugese corner takers. Whether these can be counted as missiles is debatable but thankfully the fans either ran out of stuff to throw or decided not to after booming stadium announcements warning them the game might be abandoned if this continued.

The traditions that both country brings with regards to conduct appeared to be swapped with several theatrical dives from Germans and a lot of strong, charging play from the Portugese.

Helder Postiga was shown the first yellow of the game after 12 minutes for a slide tackle on Manuel Neuer. It was not as bad as Die Mannschaft keeper made out although Postiga did catch him.

The card-count was evened up just before the break when Nani went down almost post-humously following a tackle from Holger Badstuber. But he was clearly caught by defender and it was more a fall in pain than actual simulation.

Fabio Coentrao was booked after the break for taking down Bastian Schweinsteiger but his team-mate Raul Meireles could’ve been in big trouble had Lannoy spotted his slap at Badstuber as they josted for a ball on the touchline.

Replays showed the Chelsea player had pushed a closed fist into the defender’s face. There were no appeals from the players but it should’ve been at least yellow, if not worse.

It is impossible to discuss Portugal without mentioning CR7 and sure enough the divisive figure was in the action shortly before Germany took the lead when Jerome Boateng (who had been closely marking Ronaldo all evening) went in too hard.

The goal brought the game to life and saw players using their movement and pace to escape defenders rather than physically battling with them.

It was an assured if a little overly-interfering performance from Lannoy and while I am not one of his biggest fans, he did a decent job here.

Ref’s rating: 6/10

@Euro2012Referee

Opening days are usually sedate affairs but not today. Two spectacular matches and one contest indelibly shaped by the referee. But how many of the big calls did he get right?

Poland 1-1 Greece

Yellow cards: Papastathopoulos, Holebas, Karagounis (Greece)
Red cards: Szczesny (Poland) Papastathopoulos (Greece)

Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)

This was official Carballo’s first ever major international tournament game and he ensured it would like long in the memory. Two red cards, a penalty and a disallowed goal put in him the firing line from both sets of supporters but were these decisions justified?

The game began at a fast tempo with Poland quickly taking the lead through Lewandowski. I did predict in my preview that Greek defenders could expect to see the yellow cards and just after the half hour mark, Sokratis Papastathopoulos was cautioned when challenging for the ball with the Polish striker

This was an incorrect call from Carballo on two counts. Firstly Papastathopoulos does win the ball with little impeding of Lewandowski and the laws of the game state that this situations of jumping for the ball with an opponent are only penalised with a freekick if the jump is “careless, reckless or using excessive force” which do not apply here.

Secondly, even if Carballo was being an extreme arbiter of the rules, this challenge does not deserve a yellow which means – in all likelihood – that Carballo focuses more on the Dortmund forward’s reaction rather than the challenge itself. This is a shame as Carballo is usually unmoved by simulation when overseeing games in La Liga but was tricked by it on this occasion.

Nine minutes later however, things got worse. Papastathopoulos – who had seen Greece’s only red card of their qualifying campaign against Israel – was booked again and sent off.

Now this was an obstruction and foul on Rafal Murawski (although the Pole did appear to be losing his balance before the foul itself) but I think Carballo has to use his common sense here. He should recognise that while a foul like that may result in a yellow perhaps around 40-50% of the time, this should be an opportunity to give a player a final warning and remind them they already have a caution to their name rather than book them.

We see this often from referees who themselves do not want to influence the game significantly and will give players the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately Carballo did not heed this and left the game adversely affected as a result.

A minute later and another Greek player’s name was taken, Jose Holebas, who was booked for dissent following an appeal for handball in the area by Damien Perquis. Replays showed that the handball was not deliberate as Perquis was slipping onto a ball he could not see and thus is not an offence.

Anyone expecting a dull second half as Poland closed out the game were proved wrong as a goalkeeping mistake from Wojciech Szczesny let in Dimitris Salpingidis to score.

The Greeks continued to be offensive and were awarded a penalty after 68 minutes for a foul by Szczesny on Salpingidis brought out another red card for the Polish goalkeeper.

While replays demonstrate that the Greek forward is somewhat “looking” for the penalty as he trips over Szczesny’s feet, the goalkeeper makes a decision to rush out to the player and extend himself to impede him. The ball – while drifting away from the goal – is doing so at a slow rate and still allows for a goalscoring opportunity, the deciding factor in determining whether it should be a red card.

Plenty of officials circumvent this rule by showing a yellow card and giving the penalty so as to treat the awarding of the kick as the major punishment but this is not support by the laws of the game and technically is incorrect.

Szczesny himself does not argue with the decision and subsitute goalie Przemyslaw Tyton subsequently saves the kick to deny the Greeks a lead.

The Hellenic nation thought they had scored the winner on 73 minutes through that man again Salpingidis but winger Kostas Fortounis is offside as the picture illustrates.

The assistant flags before Salpingidis is even given the ball so it is not in response to the ball hitting the net, that just happens to be when Carballo spots the flag and whistles for it.

As the game drew to a close so did the chances and as Carballo blew the final whistle, he could’ve been sure he was in for a long evening writing his report for this particular game. His poor decision to send off Papastathopoulos had significantly impacted on the game and time will tell if this draw is a help or hindrance to both sides as they go into their second games on Tuesday.

Ref rating: 4/10

Russia 4-1 Czech Republic

Yellow cards: 0
Red cards: 0

Referee: Howard Webb (England)

In comparison to the first game which had more cards than goals, this was the opposite and thankfully the action was of creative attacking football rather than foul play. Webb, who oversaw the World Cup final two years ago now took charge of a match that may help to determine who losing finalists Netherlands will play in the next round.

The small talking points came with Russia 2-0 through goals from Alan Dzagoev and Roman Shirokov when forward Andrey Arshavin was brought down in the area by Jaroslav Plasil. It did appear that Arshavin was barged in the back but even replays are not 100% clear about contact.

Had Russia been pegged back to 2-2 in the second-half when the Czech’s fought back, perhaps that decision could have been seen as pivotal but in the end the better side won convincingly.

The busiest Webb became in the first half was probably when a fan threw a flare onto the pitch and the game had to be stopped for one or two minutes while it was removed.

The absent card-count was perhaps a little too lenient as there were fouls here and there that deserved a booking. But Webb should be praised for his advantage play which allowed an open, stretched game to flow to the benefit of the spectators.

His assistant correctly ruled out a Czech goal for offside in stoppage time from Milan Petrzela but it would have been a consolation at best.

Webb was helped by two well behaved teams who both seemed to be going for victory and it will be interesting to see his approach with a more physical game later on in the tournament as his job was relatively easy for this match.

However this was a breath of fresh air compared with Carballo and it will be intriguing to see which refereeing performance is the more common for the rest of the tournament.

Ref rating: 7/10

@Andy_Slater