On a high

The last hurrah

As I mentioned not a long time ago (August 2016), Marriner hasn't been rated highly either by UEFA or by POGMOL. But in the few months since the current season has started, we are witness to a kind of rehabilitation or corrigendum. He got a nomination for a crucial final match of the preliminary rounds preceding the group stage of the Champions League and in the EPL handled the "big one" between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, and his next appointment is to officiate the Chelsea vs. Leicester City encounter. As for the Macedonia-Israel game, it most probably was his last official Inter-States match, as he is 45 years old. And he managed to provide an impeccable performance, its pinnacle being deep in stoppage time, when he awarded a penalty-kick to Macedonia at 1-2, compounding it with sending the culprit, Tibi, off the field for a second bookable offence (both decisions perfectly correct). Except for not using the advantage rule when Bitton (Israel) committed a foul in the middle of the field, while Macedonia kept possession of the ball (Marriner did it in order to book the Israeli player - he probably wasn't sure then if Bitton had already received a yellow card before or not). The ars also had a very good evening concerning the detection of offside/onside situations. One can blame them just for trifles, which Collin should burden more than Beswick.