Not an Easy Game

Brazil's First Goal

After slowing down the replay, and looking carefully at the first goal scored by Brazil, it became clear that when the Brazilian player heads the ball towards the goal, Dante is a step ahead of the defenders, and was clearly offside.

Chiellini Goal or Penalty

I hate to say this but I believe Irmatov made a mistake. It was obvious that when Balotelli was fouled in the penalty area, he blew the whistle, and pointed to the penalty spot, but when he saw the ball enter the goal, he changed his decision and awarded the goal. The best decision would have been waiting for advantage, but when he blew the whistle to award the penalty, he should have stuck with his decision.

Fouls/Cautions

When it looked like that the match was going to get out of control, he called many fouls to slow the play down, and gain control which was nice to see. There can't be many arguments with his foul recognition or the yellow cards that he handed out during the match.

Brazil's 4th Goal

Before looking at the replay, I thought that Fred was miles offside, but the replay showed that the Assistant Referee made the right decision, by not putting up his flag.

Overall Mark,

Surprisingly, Irmatov has received a pretty good mark from me, and that's not because I'm one of his fans, but it is because his Control of the Match, his refereeing style, his Fitness, and Positioning, and more importantly his Foul recognition and cautions were excellent.