The Switzerland way

Velasco Carballo and his ars

Like the Swiss, the ref. successfully crossed the finishing line for the first time in such a tournament. Mr. Velasco Carballo received scathing reviews for his handling of Poland vsGreece in Euro 2012, and after officiating Brazil vs Columbia un WC 2014. This time arround it was quite different. Refereeing this encounter proved to be not too difficult. The ref. had some great moments - the best of them in the 67th minute, when used perfectly the advantasge rule to let Albania to go forward for a striking attack on the Swiss goal. He was also right in showing Cana the yellow card twice (23' - impeding an opponent, and then for deliberate handball, which resulted in a send-off). There were two controversial decisions in the last ten minutes of normal time. The first one was close to the Swiss penalty-area: When a long searching ball was delivered towards this area, the Swiss captain Lichtsteiner and an Albanian forward bundled together and fell inside the box. It seemed, Lichtsteiner held his opponent from behind as to prevent him from getting possession of the ball, though the foul was committed outside the penalty-area. Velasco, close enough, indicated there was nothing to it and let the play continue (not unreasonably). The same happened at the other end. less than two minutes later. Seferovic, Switzerland's forward nipped the ball beyond the quickly arriving Berisha, Albania's goalie, but the goalkeeper went with his foot stretched forward which would have caught the Swiss player's leg had he not somehow jump to avoid a severe tackle (It seemed, though, there was a slight contact between the legs of both players). Again, the referee decided to have none of it, but cleverly avoided the mistake some referees make - fortunately, he didn't caution the forward for "simulation". Mr. Carballo was assisted by his "age old" team-mates (for, at least, five-plus years), Mr. Alonso Fernandez and Mr. Yuste Jimenez. Yuste made two dodgy offside decisions (25' - a defender stretched on the ground should have left the forward onside, and 27' - no replay left us with no final verdict).