No quarterfinal for Marciniak

A first assessment on general terms

Let me sum up what I have seen at this Euro from refs so far: Rizzoli was good for me, but only because others were much worse than him. Clatts was the biggest surprise to me as he outperformed all others in the two encounters I witnessed. Cakir seemed strangely motionless and uninterested as far I could spot, Kassai always remained a mystery to me and Kuipers is not at his best as Adir rightly pointed out. I never understood what UEFA sees in Eriksson, Moen, Turpin and Atkinson were solid but not really top level. Karasev started well, but from the penalty decision in the Iceland game after 40'' minutes things went rather downhill for him - his second match was the worst I have watched at this tournament. Summing up my observations: Clatts first, Rizzoli second and then quite a lot of average refs in midfield. Karasev is out as far as I am concerned.

Marciniak in all this

The Polish referee decided to let the match flow as much as possible by waving off a lot challenges in midfield for which at the WC 2010 a lot of refs would have awarded freekicks. So far, so good - he punished ellbows to the head with cautions against Iceland (50'', 78'') which was good. But on the other hand: He should have booked Arnautovic for a clumsy challenge in midfield which he missed. Far too late, he took action against excessive time wasting by Iceland who started this delaying tactics as early as ten minutes into the second half. A yellow for Halldursson after 82 minutes was nicely meant but rather an invitation to continue than a real clamping down on it.

Again: The thing with (soft) penalties

What really annoyed me, was the inconsistency in terms of all the non-calls in midfields all through the match and then all of a sudden, he awarded a penalty to Austria for arm pulling (!) against Alaba. Yes, there was contact but how do you explain to players that every pushing and shoving in midfield is permitted and inside the box all of a sudden it is a penalty. Don't give soft pens unless you do it at both ends - there was a strong handball appeal on the other end where no pen was given. The decision as such is not wrong in itself but it just seems completely out of this world in comparison to the generous approach adopted in the rest of the game.

Communication

I think what differs great refs from average ones are their communication skills. Marciniak looked as if he doesn't like to talk to players. That's for example what Rizzoli does very effectively: He shows them he has seen it and the players seem to react to it. A weak ref waffles to players and nothing happens, a strong one doesn't have to say things twice. This takes the courage to get out the cards if you see that words don't work. I think that this is the great gap between great refs and the "normal" ones. Marciniak was not strong and his day form was average at best. No quarterfinal to him if you ask me.