59 ENGPOR Elizondo

 

Like two years ago in Portugal, England and Portugal went all the way to penalties. And again, it was Portugal led by penalty expert Ricardo who would prevail. To be fair, the 120 minutes leading up to the shoot-out were rather drab with both teams avoiding risks.

For Argentinian referee Horacio Elizondo and his teammates, it was perhaps the easiest match they had to referee so far – maybe except the opener. There were nearly no crucial scenes and Portugal had used up most of its disciplinary ammunition against the Dutch at the Battle of Nürnberg.

Elizondo remained in the background most of the time, just at it suited him. When Rooney clearly stomped onto his opponent after one of the few slightly more heated duels, Elizondo was right next to him, solved this one bigger shuffle with utter calm and proceeded to eject the English hothead with a red card. Well done! His decision not to whistle a penalty for England in extra time was also correct, underlining his decision to finally book Hargreaves for dissent. He should have done so earlier though, if not for PI then for a blatant DtR offence.

One should also commend Elizondo for his calmness. Maybe being a bit more strict at yelling players would have been fine, but he remained unimpressed by the few antics throughout and for the viewer and fan gave the impression of utter trustworthyness. It is not surprising therefore that FIFA ultimately selected him as the “safe pair of hands” for the final.

Both ARs Darío García and Rodolfo Otero remained unchallenged throught, with AR2 Otero cancelling a Portuguese goal in 108’ for an extremely clear offside.

Horacio Elizondo - 8,5 Darío García - 8,4 Rodolfo Otero - 8,4 Coffi Codjia Aboudou Aderodjou ARG – BEN	England 0-0 Portugal Portugal win 3-1 after penalties Quarter-final
Terry (30') - Reckless use of arms Hargreaves (107') - Dissent	Petit (44') - Reckless sliding tackle Ricardo Carvalho (111') - SPA (Tripping)
Rooney (62') - Violent Conduct