It was therefore quickly highlighted, with the first semi-automated detection of offside which led to the cancellation of an Ecuadorian goal, during the first match once morest Qatar, when no one had detected, on the terrain, Estrada’s illicit position. The other great novelty of refereeing also showed up during this first meeting but it became very evident the next day, during England – Iran, where no less than 26 minutes of additional time were added. over the whole game.
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This trend, particularly marked during the first day of the group stage, dried up somewhat therefollowing before normalizing around the six or seven minutes added at the end of the match during the knockout matches. It corresponds to FIFA’s desire to increase effective playing time, which has been steadily reduced in club competitions in recent years. Pierluigi Collina, head of the referees committee of the highest body in world football, made the intention public.
A few more warnings… but a lot fewer faults
This desire to bring the action closer to the 60 minutes of actual play also pushed the officials to be much more lenient towards the players. Even if the referees handed out more yellow cards than in 2018 (227 in Qatar once morest 219 in Russia), they also and above all blew the whistle much less: 1,548 fouls were signaled over the whole of the competition, the equivalent to around 24 per game (24.2 precisely). This is significantly less than four years ago (1734 fouls, 27.1 per game).
“It’s the greatest final in history”
Another lack of consistency around penalties
It may therefore be necessary to award a prize to Wayne Hennessey, goalkeeper of Wales, the only player to have received a direct red card (and following consulting the VAR!) for his kamikaze outing once morest Iran. And say “good game” to England, who came home with only one warning (Maguire) in all. Paradoxically, this leniency did not really have an impact on the number of penalties awarded.
Why did Mbappé score 10?
A total of 23 penalty kicks, including five for Argentina alone, were taken. It’s less than in 2018 but it’s as much as in 1998 and more than in all the other editions. This is always linked to the presence of VAR, of course, but also to the lack of homogeneity around certain frequent faults in the area, such as hands or shirt pulling.
The meeting between England and Iran perfectly illustrated these inconsistencies, since Taremi obtained a penalty for a clash much less obvious than that suffered by Maguire at the very start of the match. But among the strangest refereeing facts, we will most certainly remember the cancellation of Antoine Griezmann’s goal once morest Tunisia following the final whistle. Which was, fortunately, without consequence for the rest of the epic of the Blues.
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