Kyros Vassaras matches

This was a classic Vassaras match. The first 70/80 minutes you hardly notice him, he is a real referee - maybe a whistle or two too many, but good nonetheless. His assistants were good too having a tough one with all those near/just off-sides, that's what they are there for. But then the end of the match comes and then, you can put your money on it: it's Vassaras time

10 minutes
Get ready for ten minutes of chaos. For the first time the Greek's hand goes to the pocket of his shorts - he does not carry his cards in his shirt pocket like most referees - and a pack of cards, a pen and a note book appear. Sure he was right with his first booking, but suddenly almost every move by the players seems to warrant a yellow card. 7 of them in 10 minutes. For fouls, sure, but also for stalling and being angry and what not.
And every time Vassaras shows a card he has to find the right page in his book to write it down. That seems to take some time. Pages full of phone numbers (his accountant in Athens, his bookie in London, a waitress from Chisinau..) ah there is some space, he writes down: Marquez and Krstanjic, yellow. Reason? They had slightly pushed each other.

...
8 yellow cards and did it work? Did the players actually stop misbehaving (in Kyros Vassaras' eyes)? A yellow card is supposed to be a warning: if you do that again you're out and if someone else does that, he will be warned too. The more Vassaras books, the more the players seem to foul.

match
At first Schalke thought they did not have a chance, but when they noticed that Barcelona did not play at all (they just passed the ball to each other) they tried their luck. After the best header Kuranyi was replaced, almost every shot was a cross high in front of the goal and no one there to put his head against it.