Mark Clattenburg (Benfica v Paris Saint Germain)

Benfica 2-1 Paris Saint Germain

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (ENG)
Assistant 1: Simon Beck (ENG)
Assistant 2: Stephen Child (ENG)
Additional Assistant 1: Lee Probert (ENG)
Additional Assistant 2: Lee Mason (ENG)
4th Official: Simon Long (ENG)

TRR Assessor: Adam (Lancashire)
Date: 10/12/13
Venue: Estadio Da Luz, Lisbon
Kick Off: 19:45
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Match Difficulty: Challenging

THE REFEREE

Foul Detection

SATISFACTORY

Comment...
The referee's foul detection was satisfactory. The referee made some strange foul and non foul decisions throughout, seemingly missing some blatant fouls while penalising players for what appeared to be fair challenges. In one instance, after letting several challenges go, the referee penalised PSG's #25, when he clearly and fairly won the ball whilst remaining standing. The referee did get the main foul decision of the match correct, to award Benfica a penalty late in the first half after a foul by PSG's #37 within the penalty area.


Positioning

GOOD

Comment...

The referee's positioning was generally good. He remained a sensible distance away from play throughout, rarely having his eyes off play. The referee appeared to be always trying to better his positioning in fluid play, reading the play and perhaps setting himself for where the ball was likely to go next. Due to the referee's good positioning, it was somewhat surprising when he made foul mis-judgements. For the foul committed by PSG's #37, as mentioned above, the referee was in the perfect position to see the player's contact with the ball, yet he awarded a free kick.

Man Management

EXCELLENT

Comment...

Man management was most definitely one of the strongest aspects of the referee's performance. Both verbal communication and gestures were used at several points during the match, which definitely seemed to work as players usually accepted the referee's decision making with very little argument, despite some decisions being questionable. Especially in the early parts of the game, the referee's man management was excellent. An early foul committed may have resulted in a yellow card, but the referee called the player over to him and was seen to be warning the player, which was nice to see instead of cards being brandished early in the match.

Card Issuing

GOOD

Comment...

In a physical game, the referee was required to act with his cards on several occassions. From the offset, it was evident that it was not the officials' plan to be handing out unnecessary cautions, backed up by the man-management incident discussed above, but once players started to take advantage of the referee's leniency, he was justified in acting with his cards. This undoubtedly helped the referee keep the game under control, and particularly towards the end of the match, where there was a lot a stake, this worked well. The referee's judgement at what warranted a yellow card was also generally accurate and consistent.

Fitness

EXCELLENT

Comment...
The referee's fitness was of an excellent standard.

THE ASSISTANT REFEREES

Assistant 1 - SATISFACTORY [7.9]
Assistant 2 - SATISFACTORY [8.2]

Comment...
The opening goal appeared to be marginally offside, though this was a very difficult decision for Assistant 1 in real time. Nevertheless, replays concluded that the attacker was offside and therefore the goal should not have stood. This has to be considered an important error which ultimately had an effect on the outcome of the match. Assistant 2 didn't have a particularly convincing game either. A fairly blatant foul was commited infront of him, yet he failed to flag which made the foul award look unconvincing. Both assistant's were always up with play.

OVERALL

GOOD

SCORE

8.3/10