AAR(gh)

team!

This time an AAR (Jansen) proved UEFA right with their experiment. Hulk dived, there was no question about it, Jansen stood close by watching it. Most of the time you wonder what the AARs are doing, what they are looking at. Do they watch the player with the ball, or do they keep an eye on whatever else happens in the box? Did the referees talk about who will be watching what? They should, but more often than not they are all watching the guy with the ball and miss a nasty kick or an elbow in a face. Anyway, this time it worked.

Merk!

In the second half Falcao stumbled over the Villareal Goalie and AAR Liesveld saw a foul. This proved UEFA wrong: now an additional assistant, who is actually a UEFA 3rd category ref, but in Holland also a colleague of Kuipers - so Kuipers would never openly question his judgment - has to decide about the really important things. That makes no sense. You can't expect a 3rd cat ref to make a decision that will anger 50.000 fans.
Actually it would make more sense to have two AARs who are elite refs with a beginner in the centre.