One of the Great

Referee and assistants

Now when Mazic is off to China Turpin is certainly one of the best couple of Europen referees (alongside Cakir). Here again we were witness to one of his better shows of how to handle an important and not easy encounter to officiate. Very calm and affable when approached by questioning or disgruntled players, and as many times before, very good application of the advantage rule (e.g. 26', 50'). Assisted by his permanent pair of ars, Danos and Gringore, who though reliable weren't always at their best. However, it will be a pity to probably lose one of them (Gringore) at the end of 2019 to abide to the (extended) UEFA retirement rule.

VAR

This time around, two Frenchmen (Rainville and Letexier) were VAR. They had no meaningful role in determining crucial decisions. They were involved quite unnecessarily in Juve's goal (28'), as there was a clear undisrupted header towards goal, and pushing occured between two Ajax defenders. Thus the goal stood. On the other, and sensibly so, they didn't interfere when the ball hit Blind's arm in the Ajax penalty-area (90') and Turpin waived play on. It was a clear "French decision" as opposed to the "Italian interpretation" demonstrated in WC 2018 (e.g. Iran-Portugal, Nigeria-Argentina) and lately in Paris (PSJ-Manchester united).