Taylor immediately broke the match. Yes, in fact, even the highest-level referees have their own concept of the game. Cards cannot be handed out in the first minutes, let alone taken off the field: they can affect the final result. This was told to me by famous referees who headed the UEFA referees’ committee. There is probably some home-grown truth in this.
But not sending off Toni Kroos, who mercilessly brought down Pedri twice, is truly a sin. And what about the injury of the leader of the Spanish national team, Pedri, whose knee was hit intentionally or unintentionally by Kroos, forcing the poor guy to leave the field? Didn’t this affect Spain’s game, didn’t it deprive them of the likely chance to win in regular time and not in the last minutes of painful extra time? And Kroos should have been sent off, if not after the first missed card, then at least after his second rudeness. And didn’t this gentleness towards the captain of the German national team affect the match?
Well, it started from there. Taylor, as if making excuses, began to hand out yellow cards, of which there were 12. He even got to the untouchable Kroos. But the quarter-final of the European Championship has already gone beyond the control of the referee. Taylor, 45, for whom this failure is far from the first in his long career, did not sympathize with anyone or help them. And there is no such thought. Only after the first mistake began a whole series of obvious mistakes. The most gross, obvious and beyond all doubt is the penalty that was not called at the end of the match against the Spaniards. Cucurella played with his hand in his own area. It is impossible to ignore such a violation. But the English referee also got it.
Where was the VAR, which had been constantly interfering in the course of the championship before this match? No answer.
The quarter-final match turned into a parade of yellow cards. And to the complete defeat of the referee, who handed them out desperately.
