Boos for Busacca

Not his best

Massimo Busacca was not very good tonight. His foul recognition was mediocre, often punishing very minor contact but not more obvious fouls. He seemed to struggle with use of the advantage, and having missed a few opportunities to play the advantage in the first half, he used it too much in the second and did not bring play back to the free kick when the advantages did not materialise.

Cards

On the whole the yellow cards were warranted. I agree with his decision to book Fabregas because, despite winning the ball his trailing leg took out the man, and this constitues "tackling an opponent in a reckless manner" which is a yellow card under Law 12. I did feel that Eboue's booking was harsh, and that he should have gone back to show a couple of yellows after playing out the advantage.

Penalty

Puyol and Fabregas had a small tangle of legs. Busacca decided that it was a penalty, and a red card for Puyol for denying a goal scoring opportunity. I disagree with both aspects of this judgement; I don't think it was a foul. It was certainly no different to Clichy and Messi tangling in the first half, and that simply resulted in a goal kick. Furthermore, Fabregas was not in control of the ball, so I am not convinced it was an obvious goalscoring opportunity; if it were a penalty then a yellow would have been more suitable. That Busacca took several seconds to reach this decision indicates he was not confident he was correct.

Boos

Maybe the penalty decision was influenced by the Arsenal fans, who booed Busacca's decision to book Fabregas. Either way, he was not the usual Busacca tonight. He was poorly positioned on a number of occasions, and seemed to be struggling to run at full speed. His signalling lacked confidence. Furthermore, his style of refereeing is not suited to this sort of match, and a much more authoritarian referee would be a better choice. I would suggest Wolfgang Stark for the second leg (or Terje Hauge...)