Croatia and Belgium are fighting for a playoff spot at the World Cup in Qatar. British referee Anthony Taylor was in the spotlight in the first half.
First, he awarded a penalty after Croatian striker Andrej Kramaric fell in the opposition penalty area after making contact with Yannick Carrasco. The replay showed the Belgian had stepped on his foot, so the referee’s decision seemed fair. It was a fair call when Luka Modric, the Croatian midfielder, was about to kick the ball but Taylor gestured for his assistant to intervene.
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A little later, the referee himself went to the monitor to watch the replay. The television picture showed us that Taylor was watching the episode that preceded the one that led to the penalty. As a result, the Englishman made a characteristic gesture to indicate that Dejan Lovren was offside. Naturally, this led to indignation on the Croatian side, but Modric had to give the ball to his opponent.
A little later, TV graphics with semi-automatic offside detection appeared. To be honest, when you look at the picture, you can’t be completely sure that the refereeing team made the right decision. It looks like the fate of the episode was decided by some millimeters. The Belgians were very lucky. None of Roberto Martinez’s team players even argued with the referee after the penalty shot was awarded.
Soccer experts commented on it this way:
First they showed us a very crooked picture, and then they gave us a graphic. And we are simply speechless. It’s not a millimeter offside, it’s just a nanometer offside! You can’t cancel such penalties, it’s not an obvious and obvious mistake of the assistant. FIFA just got lost and we get this… It would be better if they didn’t show the schedule at all, rather than embarrassing themselves like this. It’s not soccer, it’s profanity. Our opinion – we should have continued the game and kicked the 11-meter goal to Belgium.
This is not the first refereeing mistake in the tournament. There are a lot of controversial moments in this World Cup, and this is despite the fact that many modern technologies are used to make the game as fair as possible. But we must admit that in some cases it is unnecessary and often leads to absurd situations.
