Below expectation

Stark

Stark tonight was solid, but as he is an Elite referee I expected much better refereeing. He had too many wrong judgments , he called almost 40 fouls ,most of them commited by Israel, but he also missed many more. He also missed when he cautioned Croatian striker Eduardo for protests, but only Stark saw saw a foul which Eduardo "commited". Just a few moments before Stark had to show yellow for Croatian defender Kovac after he pulled a shirt off an Israel player, but Stark again didn't see anything. Stark showed five yellow cards for rough fouls, four cards for Israel, but if he had controled the match better from the start probably the game wouldn't be so rough with so many fouls. When this match was played in Israel both teams commited just 14 fouls with one yellow card.

Match

In a tough game for Croatia, Eduardo scored a goal in the second half and Croatia now needs just one point in the next two games or wait till the Wednesday match between Russia and England.