Former referee Graham Poll insisted Michael Oliver was correct in his
decisions to award Real Madrid a last-gasp penalty and send off
Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon in a dramatic Champions League clash.
Two-time
reigning champions Madrid advanced to the semi-finals 4-3 on aggregate,
despite a controversial 3-1 defeat to Juventus in the Spanish capital
on Wednesday.
With extra time looming following
Juve's stunning comeback, English referee Oliver awarded Madrid a
stoppage-time penalty – which Cristiano Ronaldo converted – after Medhi
Benatia's foul on substitute Lucas Vazquez.
Enraged
by the decision, Buffon was then red carded for the first time in the
Champions League after furiously confronting Oliver, who was surrounded
by Juve players at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Oliver was heavily criticised by Buffon and others post-match but Poll hailed his countryman's performance in Madrid.
"Michael
Oliver, only promoted to the elite group of officials in January,
justified the decision with some very strong but correct refereeing in
the Bernabeu," Poll wrote for the Daily Mail.
"With
scores level in a gripping quarter-final heading for extra time, Oliver
was courageous enough to award a penalty which, once converted,
took Real Madrid through to the semi-final.
"He
didn't stop there. Surrounded and disgracefully harassed by half a dozen
or so menacing Juventus players, led by their talismanic captain,
Oliver – 33 - stayed calm and correctly dismissed Gianluigi Buffon for
his aggressive protests.
"Arsene Wenger once told me
I was talking rubbish when I said a referee needed courage to give big
decisions. I imagine after watching this he will understand.
"What a pity the FA didn't promote Oliver sooner so he could have been eligible for the World Cup."
No comments:
Post a Comment