Too easy for Guinea but challenging work for the referee

An intensive first half

The match was already decided after the first half, in which many things happened. A red card, a penalty and other important calls. Guinea scored first goal after 15 min. In that situation, two Botswana players clashed each other in a embarrassing way. Until then, match was quite fair and calm. At 18', a offside call by second assistant was unfortunately a mistake against Guinea. A few later, there was the first important call: penalty for Botswana. Clear situation: big mistake by Guinea defender, which passed the ball to keeper too slowly and a Botswana player was able to reach it before than the keeper. So, keeper committed foul, while thinking of kicking the ball. It was ok also the yellow card because it wasn't a clear chance to score immediatly a goal. Well seen by the referee. The penalty was saved by keeper, but Bechir Kassani noticed maybe a irregular moving of the keeper. So, penalty was repeated and Botswana scored. Meanwhile, a Guinea player got a yellow for complaints. I think it was a correct call, watching the replay. At 27', a Botswana player got a card for a tackle from the back. Maybe he tried to reach the ball however was lucky with only a yellow because it was a dangerous situation. The second important call was the straight red card for Botswana player: totally correct. A very harsh foul. directly on the legs. El Ahrach was really close and he saw well.

Second half: Hassani missed goal

Second half was maybe more relaxing for Guinea and for the referee, I have to report a yellow card for a Botswana player at 50', that was correct, The foul was rude and the decision was consistent with the aforementioned yellow in first half. The crucial situation of second half however was a shot of a Guinea player at 58': the ball bounced under the crossbar and beyond the line: it was goal. Hard to see, very hard. We can't blame Hassani and fortunately it wasn't an important call, because Guinea won 6-1.

FIFA: please do something.

We are annoyed with all these GOAL - NO GOAL situations, when the ball is in but the human eye isn't able to watch it. We can't blame the assistant referees because they are far and the ball takes a second to bounce in the net and then to return back. We have to use technology, there aren't other ways to solve it.

Match difficulty

As I wrote, it was easy for Guinea, but El Ahrach and his team had important work to do. Difficulty: 8, very hard.