Our referees “gave the rink” to the UEFA Referee Committee in front of their eyes.

Marseille - Brighton - not the top match, which our referees worked on for many other reasons. Maybe for about ten years. Whoever marveled at the game won’t let it go away: behind the hurricane pace, the level of mastery, the fantastic atmosphere of the filled Velodrome, there will be a duel of a very high level. Let’s not say “peer of the Champions League”, because the offending teams behind the river can all settle down there.

In fact, if the teams come out to fight, and not fight one another, fight, feign, then the referees will definitely have a much easier time. I would have told this game just before such. Until that moment, the leadership of Mikoli Balakin’s brigade was simply not worth it. Up to 82 days inclusive and there were not many fouls, and there was only one card left.

But if everything was awkward, Polish colleagues at VAR decided to “update” the situation. And they called Balakin to marvel at the hand of Marseilles Valentin Ronge. It is possible that Pole Piotr Lasik could work out the VAR protocol, we don’t know such subtleties. But at the moment Balakin became clear: so, with the hand of Ronge, he grabbed it, but it happened through the post office of Brighton's resident Jean-Paul van Hecke. It's not a penalty. Wait, it’s not often that the head referee, having already reached the monitor, loses his mind. It means that Balakin is in love with himself.

Bezpomilkovo and assistants. With VAR it is, of course, easier to call offsides - you simply allow further play until the attack is completed. After all, there is still a need to make decisions and for a successful career it is necessary for it to be correct. The actions of linesman Dmytro Zaporozhenko are significant here: in tricky situations with offside Danny Welbeck (end of the 1st half) and offside Ismaili Sarra (84 minutes) he clearly figured out himself. Before speaking, Sarr categorically could not believe his position in the game.

We meant that until the 82nd century, teams concentrated on the game. Then the situation got heated. Pieces of rough stuff, welding between opponents. So in the last 15 weeks, Balakin had a chance to wave the yellow card - six times before this section. Everything is to the point. Well, let’s talk about the penalty at the Marseille goal. Balakin took the right position, miraculously drawing a foul from Jonathan Kloss against Tarik Lempta and calling the foul literally at that very second.

For this brigade this is already the sixth international match of this season.

The important thing is not to deprive the status of this match, and those who are overseeing the arbitration in New York Roberto Rosetti is the head of the UEFA refereeing committee. I don’t know the specifics of the job there, but it seems that the boss will especially look out for the most promising practitioners. If this is so, then it wouldn’t be enough to express hostility about the work of the Ukrainian brigade.

Maxim Gilenko, specially for Football. ua.