Howard is back

The match

From early on, all questions about which team were going to win the game were dropped. Lyon dominated the field, scored their first in the 7th minute and held to the driving seat, adding a second goal 10 minutes before half-time. Though Tel-Aviv converted a penalty in the 79th minute, they were no nearer than before to snatch a point.

Referee and assistants

It wasn`t a difficult match to handle, and Mr. Webb did it with ease and finesse. However, every goal scored is entitled to a description of the situation surrounding it. The first goal came after Badir clipped Briand`s feet deep into the Tel-Aviv penalty area. A penalty-kick was rightly awarded, but the personal punishment was a booking instead of sending the player off as he prevented a clear goal-scoring opportunity. The second goal followed a corner-kick (bothe goals were scored by Bastos). The corner-kick was awarded after Gomis was blocked. The problem in this case was that Gomis lokked suspiciously offside, though neither the camera`s first angle, nor its second one (the replay) were good enough to vindicate Mr. Cann`s decision to let play on, or prove him wrong (the other ar was Mr. Mullarkey). The Tel-Aviv penalty-kick (converted by goalkeeper Enyeama) was awarded as Lovren was adjudged (correctly) to pull da Silva by his arm when the pack of players followed a free-kick taken into the Lyon penalty area (an incident quite similar to the one Mr. Webb had awarded Austria a penalty-kick for, in their encounter with Poland in Euro 2008). The third Lyon goal came in stoppage time. Badir made another blatant foul on the edge of the goal area, thus preventing Pied from scoring. Webb`s hand gesture meant he wasn`t calling it foul play (the ref had a bad spell of wrong calls in the last 7 minutes of the game), but Pjanic was alert and quick enough to replace my question marks with an exclamation mark.