This referee must not stay at home..

Match importance

Well, we probably all recognized that UEFA tends to underestimate some groups (like group I...) in this qualifier round. The group B contains several teams who could reach the finals: Russia (17 points now), Ireland (15 points now) and Slovakia (14 points, with a win against Armenia they could have 17 points as well). Therefore, UEFA nominated Felix Brych for this match and he showed that he was the right choice. He showed how one can and should handle such an important match which was not difficult, one has to say that. But sometimes, the referee's approach can lead to an easy match..and to a difficult one.

Calls

In the first half I could not find any mistake. He kept everything under full control, his assistant referees Salver and Pickel who normally accompany Stark had throughout the whole match no problems either. No card, under 10 fouls, this was the satisfying half-time balance. The second half was more intense; he did not hesitate to book the Russian player for the first hard foul of the match. After that, there were three yellows to Ireland which were all right as well. The first of these three went against Dunne, this yellow card had some red spots on itself as it was really a hard foul. Both players dashed against the tracks surrounding the pitch. Apart from this, it was nearly perfect, I wish he would smile every now and then, but obviously, German top referees need no smiles to be good ones (Fandel, Stark, Brych).

0-0

The result indicates a boring match, but it was one of these so-called "good 0-0s"...Russia did everything to win, two times they actually should have scored, but keeper Given seemed to have an objection against it..