To be honest I did not see the game yesterday. This old fella needed to sleep. It was the Champions League second leg. Juventus travelling to the Bernabau Stadium, 3 goals behind from the first leg. Mission impossible they say. Obviously I was very curious first thing this morning as to what had unfolded. And it made for interesting reading.
Firstly well done to Juventus. To come back, get back into the tie against the greatest of odds, is the stuff of champions. They should be applauded and looked upon with the greatest of respect for such an achievement. Which makes what unfolded in Madrid all the more difficult to swallow. I can imagine that Juventus fans must be rather disappointed this morning.
Getting to the critical moment of the match, having looked at the penalty given by English ref Michael Oliver, I can’t for the life of me see how it was given. At best there was a slight nudge from the defender. Which had it happened elsewhere on the pitch, and at a different stage of the match, may or may not have been given as a free kick. But surely, to give a penalty in a match of such importance, with so much riding on it, in the 93rd minute, it has to be absolutely 100% crystal clear.
For me, it was very far from that. Thus the referee takes the headlines, decided who progressed, and cost Juventus a crack at the big title and millions in revenue. What a shame, a disaster & an absolute FARCE. In a game where there is SOOOO much money, these kind of situations should no longer exist. Where nearly all other sports in the world have advanced greatly, football, or soccer still remains in the dark ages. Something has to be done and NOW.
Surely the development of a currently raw VAR system has to be priority number one for FIFA and the entire football world? Does this not make absolute sense in the modern game? Can we really now deny that technology in the game is now not absolutely necessary? I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this as for me it is now at a critical point.
At the end of the day, we learnt two things over the past two days in the Champions League:
1. Football is Grande. What an advert for the beautiful game. Great quality football, great battles. Truly exciting. Teams reverting to all out attack, others trying to hold on by the skin of there teeth. It was a wonderful couple of days of football viewing.
2. Global refereeing sucks giant mammoth penis. Unbelievable. All these years later and the situation just seems to be getting worse. You would think these referees were part timers or something. You know, coming from their butcher or postal job, turning up on a weekend to spend 90 odd minutes running around. But no, these guys are professional. Full time and paid very well. With this in mind the standard of refereeing by all but a few is an absolute joke.
Such a shame that this absolute legend of the game had to go out in this fashion. Won’t ruin his legacy though!
At 1st i thought it wasn’t a pen…but now i think it was 100% a pen