The Viola stood on the brink of one of their greatest European results last night before the nasty football fates intervened. Well, the referee anyway.
With Luciano Zauri lying pole-axed on the floor in the penalty box after a head knock the ref failed to stop play. Then Lyon showed a distinct lack of sportsmanship by continuing to play themselves. It was child's play to roll the ball into the net with Zauri effectively playing everybody on side while clutching his head.
Yes, the Viola were naive. Yes, they should have played the whistle. Yes, they should not have tried to play the offside trap.
Just the same it left a bitter taste. Eventually Lyon equalised from being 2-0 down (from a dubious free-kick) and a draw in France ended up feeling disappointing when it should have been a good result. When my rage dies down I may realise that. In the meantime, I am furious.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ridiculous decision from the same moron who allowed Van Nistelrooy's goal against us in the Euros (in very similar circumstances).
Still, thought it was a good performance by your boys and delighted to see Gila getting back to his best, as I knew he would. It is a decent result for you; it's just annoying the way it came about.
I think there'll be a few scores to settle when Lyon arrive in Florence...
Now that the precident has well and truly been sent players are likely to be looking out for this loop hole and i doubt its the last time we will see this sort of scenario.
The argument for lyon is that sometimes players fake injuries to stop the play and help their team reset or whatever but in both the Azzurri and Fiorentina situations the player was down for quite a while and the ball had gone down field before coming back and I think in that situation the referee should stop play.
I think if a player goes down and the referee thinks he might be play acting and the play is still in the area of the injured player then play on but once its cleared play should be stopped, particularly if its a potential head injury.
I think this will be a bigger problem than diving if the powers that be can't find an adequete alternative to the current ruling.
Post a Comment