Very assured

Comfortable

It was a comfortable night too for Gianluca Rocchi and his team. The game was played in excellent spirits and Rocchi was able to take a background role, helping the flow of the game with some good use of the advantage. I felt he got just about every decision correct, and the assistants were also spot on with their offside judgements. The AARs looked smart, but made no other contribution so far as I could tell; surely it would be better for them to stand on the other side of the goal from the assistant. When booking players, Rocchi had the yellow card out of his pocket very rapidly and showed it from distance. I would prefer him to take a few extra seconds.

Penalty?

Ajax appealed for a penalty just before half time, but this was fruitless. Perhaps there was some foul contact outside the box and there could have been a free kick (definitely not a penalty), but the fall was heavily exaggerated and I can appreciate why Rocchi decided not to blow his whistle.