mmm, i think busacca is much more to blame than webb honestly.
u see, webb didn't judge the situation properly (de rossi should have been red carded obviously) because he didn't see the elbow. and we can't even blame him for not seeing the elbow as the whole thing happened when the ball wasn't nearby the players.
sure that's a mistake, a wrong call by the ref and his assistant, but what happened in barcelona was far worse.
busacca saw the action, he was absolutely aware of what happened and judged what he saw. and his decision making in that specific situation was absolutely unacceptable.
collina once said "
refereeing is not just about applying the rules. applying common sense to the rules is much more important. u don't hand red cards or second yellow cards in important cup matches and elimination rounds unless it's absolutely inevitable. in theese type of matches u have to change your style to make your presence on the pitch as invisible as possible. the ref's decision don't have to interfere with the course of the game, and that especially applies to this sort of games as the margin of error is even smaller".
a second yellow card in a champions league eight final 2nd leg, is a match-changer event. u hand it if the player does, say, what de rossi did yesterday. but if a player simply ignores the whistle and takes a shot (because he didn't hear u, or because he pretended not to hear u)... u just go there and talk to him. there's not a possible scenario where handing a 2nd yellow card in that situation is an acceptable decision.
webb made obviously a mistake, but we can't blame his decision because he just didn't see de rossi's elbow (and sure he couldn't send off de rossi just coz srna told him de rossi attacked him!).
busacca instead had a perfect picture of the situation.... and judged it in an absolutely unappropriate way.
also webb decision had pretty much no impact whatsoever on the game. roma was already losing the game and never looked as if they could possibly win yesterday (no matter how many men they had on the pitch), plus they needed 3 goals to make it to the quarters.
busacca's decision instead completely killed the game. barcelona was already winning the match.... but arsenal only needed 1 goal to change the situation in their favour.... and having to play without your offensive go-to-guy deprived em of any chance whatsoever to try and score. infact we might well say that yesterday busacca had a much bigger impact on the game than messi, iniesta and xavi.
i'm not questioning barca's victory obviously. the only thing i'm questioning is busacca's terrible decision making yesterday. he completely ruined the game with that decision... and, as a neutral, i was fuming when he sent van persie off, because it was a great game between arsenal and barça yesterday, right until that moment.
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as for the de rossi elbow, what a class act lucescu is!
sure if i were srna right now, i would be pretty mad at my coach, but he sure showed some class in that post-match interview.
however what lucescu said obviously doesn't change the fact that de rossi (just like gattuso 2 weeks ago) still deserves a serious ban, no matter what srna said to him
but, in daniele's defense, we can say it was classy from him not to hide himself behind insults or provocations (even affter lucescu outed srna, daniele didn't say a word about srna provocations) and take full responsibility for his loss of coolness. fair play
I like the fact they've spread the games over instead of having them all on the same day.
