Not bad

The referee

Mr. de Bleeckere adapted his running style to the new conditions, ie taking an almost straight line, with a slight tendency to the right, and without enttering into the penalty areas. As I watch other referees, it seems to be according to some instructions. I don`t totally agree with this policy, as it turns the back of the ref to the assistant, and in order to see if he/she has raised the flag the ref has to turn around because he has no eye-contact with the assistant (I don`t think the audio-system is an appropriate substitute to straightforward eye-contact). As for the refereeing content in this match: It was quite easy to control, no grave mistakes by Mr. de Bleeckere. I would like to mention one particular case, in the 74th minute, when there was a too broad interpretation of the advantage rule: One Young Boys player was fouled, another one got the ball, dribbled the ball, then lost it, and the ref whistled and awarded a free kick for the foul committed upon the first Young Boys player. There was no justification for the free-kick, as the loss of ball had nothing to do with initial infringement.

The assistants..

Mr. Hermans and Mr. Vromans are vulnerable to crucial mistakes. There were many in past CL matches, especially by Vromans. At WC 2010 the crucial ones were made by Hermans. Here we were back to Vromans: In the 4th minute a Young Boys shot from outside the Totenham penalty area hit the back of striker Jemal who was offside inside the penalty area, was then deflected to Lulic, who was onside and scored the first goal of the match. Mr. Hermans was very good at waiting to see what happens, when in the 58th minute a Totenham player pushed an opponent very close to the assistant, and the latter waited to see if the Young Boys player loses control of the ball or not, raising his flag for a foul only after the ball went over the touchline.