The Ref Stop

SCO HUN

The Ref Stop
Knee in the back of the leg means pen to me.
That depends why he leg is there. Certainly from one angle Armstrong slows down and then moves his left leg towards the defender. Even Shearer said that he was stepping across him to make him foul him, he thinks that makes it a penalty but I disagree.
 
Rare I disagree with you on decisions, but I thought Armstrong slowed down and moved a leg towards the defender. Not a penalty for me.
Shielding is allowed when the ball is in playing distance, which is all he is doing.

The only bit I don't like is the shirt pull but this comes after the knee contact
 
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Shielding is allowed when the ball is in playing distance, which is all he is doing.

The only bit I don't like is the shirt pull but this comes after the shirt hold.
Shielding is allowed, but if you move your left leg towards a defender and his knee connects with it I'm far from sure that should be a penalty. I 100% think he was playing for a penalty there and it backfired.

Just goes to show how VAR is so difficult in football though, a decision that not even referees can agree on.
 
I think I'm with everyone here in wishing Hungarian player Barnabas Varga a speedy recovery from his awful injury this evening with the game against Scotland.

It still hasn't been reported in what way he was injured, but it's clearly quite serious.

Hungary striker Barnabas Varga is "stable" in hospital after being carried off on a stretcher following a mid-air clash with Scotland goalkeeper Angus Gunn in Sunday night's Euro 2024 match.

 
In my humble opinion the Scot went looking for contact. Freeze frame it and have a look yourself. He pulled the Hungarian over and iniated contact by moving his leg over. And to be fair the refs they have been letting heavy contact all tournament go. (Case in point the German barging over the Hungarian for their first goal.)

Armstrong should have tried to stay on his feet instead of looking to fall over, which he did.

On your bike sunshine.
 
Just goes to show how VAR is so difficult in football though, a decision that not even referees can agree on.
This we can agree on.

TBF there are very few where all referees agree. I always say you can stick any number of referees in a room, show them the same clip and you'll get a wide range of outcomes.

This one seems to be a polar split though between definitely not a penalty and definitely a penalty.
In my humble opinion the Scot went looking for contact. Freeze frame it and have a look yourself. He pulled the Hungarian over and iniated contact by moving his leg over. And to be fair the refs they have been letting heavy contact all tournament go. (Case in point the German barging over the Hungarian for their first goal.)

Armstrong should have tried to stay on his feet instead of looking to fall over, which he did.

On your bike sunshine.
I've just been back and looked again and the pulling of the shirt only happens after the contact on the knee. I think the slow motion makes this look like something it isn't. In real time it's just a clear pen for me.
 
VAR has had it very easy so far in the Euros. Very few difficult and subjective incidents in the PAs
It's only Scotland. Outside of the UK (in which the football world has unanimously gone mad about this decision), it' only Minnows and won't cause a stir

It's typifies where VAR doesn't work
If it's just the Ref, it's a contentious decision
With VAR involved, it results in very bad feeling either way
If the Ref had gone to the monitor, bad feeling would only extend to hatred and conspiracy. He may have gone over and stuck with his original decision, thereby leaving some folk mortified

Anywhere else on the pitch, it's a clear FK
I generally agree with a higher bar in the PA for upper body stuff. But as @JamesL points out, the claim was for the knee into the back of the leg
On balance, even though I'd backed Hungary, I think it's a PK
 
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Realtime i thought penalty but on replay i thought attacker trying to buy a penalty.

Trying to judge attackers initiating or pre-empting is a very hard thing to do.

IF it was offisde then show that decision to stop the moaning about "no penalty".
 
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Easy to say with the money in the bank 🤣
I was expecting a PK both in real time and on review, although I can see the argument against
The draw was a 'no bet' for me, so I won cos Hungary scored at the end but would only have lost if Scotland got the 3 points
I've been quite lucky with my bets in the comp TBF although the luck has been overdue
 
I've seen a few Prem leagues matches when they've just had the keeper to beat, and they're still trying to draw the foul. TBH, in this case if he hadn't cut across with his left leg and just concentrated on scoring he may have got either a goal or pen
The player is right footed. The movement he makes is entirely natural for a right footed player in that situation shaping to kick the ball.

Whilst we have seen examples, Jota springs to mind, this doesn't fall into this category imo.
Definitely. Far too much effort is spent on deception and "winning" free kicks/penalties.
I'd be very surprised if that was actually the case here. All the players movements are totally natural and consistent with what he was trying to achieve, which was to shield the defender and play the ball with his preferred right foot. Add in to that there is a deflection on the way through that changes the direction and speed of the ball it's entirely reasonable to expect the attacker to make some adjustments for that.
 
I'd be very surprised if that was actually the case here. All the players movements are totally natural and consistent with what he was trying to achieve, which was to shield the defender and play the ball with his preferred right foot. Add in to that there is a deflection on the way through that changes the direction and speed of the ball it's entirely reasonable to expect the attacker to make some adjustments for that
I think the point being made is that 'it's like the boy that cried wolf'
We don't think the Scot was attempting deception on this occasion (I don't think he was, but I'm not sure), but he was a victim of players attempting to deceive the Ref on a routine basis. It's the player's (ALL players, not necessarily the Scot's) fault that a high bar is promoted for PK awards
But then it's the Ref who gets the blame when a genuine strong PK claim is turned down
 
I think the point being made is that 'it's like the boy that cried wolf'
We don't think the Scot was attempting deception on this occasion (I don't think he was, but I'm not sure), but he was a victim of players attempting to deceive the Ref on a routine basis. It's the player's (ALL players, not necessarily the Scot's) fault that a high bar is promoted for PK awards
But then it's the Ref who gets the blame when a genuine strong PK claim is turned down
I think a few have expressed they think it was an attempt to deceive. I can accept he was a victim of boy who cried wolf syndrome, but that is not what I think is being put forward.
 
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