| Maccabi Haifa | - | Schalke 04 |
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Maccabi Haifa - Schalke 04, 0 - 3. Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2011-12-14
Schalke have already had qualified at the last matchday so that they decided to spare some important players with regard to imminent matches in Bundesliga and DFB Cup. Due to a serious case in his family, the coach Steevens stayed at home or more likely went to NED to be with his family. But it was no falsification of competition, at least it has not unfolded to be that. As Schalke fan I expected much less from my team as Huntelaar, Raúl, Holtby, our goalkeeper stayed at home and as Farfán is still injured.
Fredy Fautrel
Probably he is one of those French guys whose ranking in UEFA's referee groups cannot be totally understood. There is actually no prospect for him, the past showed that he did not get so many matches. Overall, all the appointments in EL were a bit strange, it is/was the last matchday and they inset referees without big prospect and who have not shown good perfomances in previous matches, e.g. Stalhammar, Fautrel or Layushkin.
Calls
He would have been lost without his assistant referees Emmanuel Boisdenghien and Fredji Harchay. It was a bit strange: there were about 15 close onside/offside situations, the percentage of right decisions? 100%. But they all were blind concerning throw in decisions and corner kicks. One time, Buquet (add-ass-ref 2) was 2 metres away from a duel and he did not get it right who gets a corner kick or a goal kick. The result? A yellow card for reasonable protests against Marica. He furthermore missed many clear fouls or missed obvious bookings. And, the probably most important mistake, he had to show a clear red card for a brutal foul (would have been red against a Haifa midfielder), he only gave yellow..but finally, it was good because the match calmed down a lot after this yellow. The penalty was undoubtfully correct - he must see that and he did.
Title
I have seen a lot from French referees. The last good man was in my opinion Alain Sars and then, nothing followed. Poulat? Layec? Lannoy? I have seen enough from this "the way you show a card with your hands is more important than cautioning a foul causing two broken legs". They should focus on Turpin. He can reach a lot as there is no real competitive. Gautier was lost in his first CL match, but I do not give him up. Turpin and Gautier are good refs, the only two in my opinion from France on the FIFA list.