Napoli 2-0 Arsenal
Referee: Viktor Kassai (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: György Ring (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Vencel Tóth (HUN)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Tamás Bognar (HUN)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Sandor Andó-Szabó (HUN)
Fourth Official: Robert Kispál (HUN)
TRR Assessor: Daniel (Merseyside)
Venue: San Paolo, Napoli, Italy
Kick Off: 19:45
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Match Difficulty: Challenging
THE REFEREE
Foul Detection
GOOD
Comment...
The Referee's foul detection was generally good. The majority of the fouls he identified where correct in law and acted on appropriately. The referee was consistent with his interpretation throughout the match, what he classified as a foul and what he did not. There were a couple of occasions were a good foul was denied. The Referee also played several good advantages during the mind.
Positioning
SATISFACTORY
Comment...
The Referee's positioning was general satisfactory. Whilst he never had an issue keeping up with play nor getting in its way there were a couple of occasions where the positions he adopted were questionable. One such example was in the tenth minute where he presumably relied totally on his assistant for a Free Kick award as he had his back to play when the challenge occurred and blew up seconds later.
Man Management
EXCELLENT
Comment...
The Referee's man management was excellent. He regularly spoke to players to explain his decisions and warn them about their future conduct. This ranged from informal, friendly advice to more formal rebukes as appropriate.
Card Issuing
GOOD
Comment...
All Cautions and the Games 1 Dismissal were strictly correct and justified in law. The referee was generally consistent with his card issuing. The second caution of the Arsenal #8 whilst justifiable, may have been avoided with one more warning given, but the referee was entirely justified to take the action he did.
Fitness
EXCELLENT
Comment...
The referees fitness was excellent.
THE ASSISTANT REFEREES
Assistant 1 - VERY GOOD [8.5]
Assistant 2 - VERY GOOD [8.5]
Both Assistants had very good game assisting with foul awards as well as making several good offside decisions.
OVERALL
GOOD
SCORE
8.4/10
Referee's Man Management wasn't excellent. He tolerated too much dissent and gestures without any action. Point for improvement here.
ReplyDeleteAlso AR1 incorrectly flagged Higuain (NAP) at min. 1' and AR2 incorrectly flagged Mertens (NAP) at min. 56'.
Edward,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to comment.
In regards, to the dissent issue whilst domestically I'd of probably agreed, I considered the general tolerance of Champions League Officials when it comes to dealing with the issue and also that he did attempt to manage them through communication.
I was not completely convinced over the Higuain (NAP) offside in Napoli 1 but gave the official the benefit of the doubt as I to was not 100 % after two viewings. I must confess I cannot recollect this offside in the 56th minute nor is it in my notes, my apologies for this.
Thank you for your time, I'm always glad to hear feedback on my assessments in order to hopefully improve them. I hope to hear from you again in the future and that you enjoy our blog posts.
Daniel,
ReplyDeleteI could agree with you in the general context of Champions League but Kassai seemed to ignore players who were angry. IMO he didn't talk to the players enough or even make clear gestures to them. That's actually the only negative I received from this match.