Control through cards

Decision making

The foul detection was not at all bad and also the general decision making was in line with the general level at this tournament. In critical situations, the refs at this WC 2018 tolerate a lot of dissent and where I thought more cards at the right time would calm things down, FIFA seems to again have the position that booking for dissent is not desired. Sikazwe ignored these guidelines to a great extent and booked very easily which stood out even more compared to his colleagues. De Bruyne received an "orange" yellow for a kick near the stomach, but I would have ruled accidental contact myself and thought a red card too harsh.