UEFA EURO Analysis: Felix Brych's performance in Italy vs. Spain

Felix Brych fulfilled the brief - the German referee realised a good performance in the first EURO semifinal, in one of the tournament's most challenging games; much to analyse on a technical level! This posts attempts to do that.  

Let's start with the key incidents which the officials had to face in this Mediterranean derby. 

Big Decisions

We'll work through the three incidents in chronological order - first, Brych was clearly correct to wave the game on at 90' in this potential handling penalty incident. An archetypal accidental handling, Chiellini was using his arm to support his body on the floor when the ball hit it. Awarding a spot-kick would be a big mistake here. 

As it would be, to award a penalty in the much-discussed (on Law 5!) holding incident at 98'. I cannot be clear enough here - this is never, ever a penalty. It is interesting that many people used to express their vision for how big games should be officiated in the comments; this situation has no relevance to that at all. 

This is what happens at 98' - Di Lorenzo wants to move towards the goalline whilst facing the other way. Moreno notices this, and impedes the Italy defender from doing that. This causes Di Lorenzo to fall, and he is going to crash into Garcia in the process, so Di Lorenzo's actions are genuinely only trying to minimise the impact of this forced collision!

Garcia's reaction shows that he saw the situation exactly like that. One can wonder whether the officials even really perceived this incident, but if anything the correct restart would be a defensive freekick. To state that this is should be assessed as a penalty shows a serious lack of football understanding, in my view. 

And finally, Stefan Lupp detected the clear offside at 110' correctly. 

Managing the Game

Felix Brych had to face one of the most challenging matches at this EURO, complicated on both a technical and tactical level. By smartly adapting his characteristic approach, the German referee ensured that he succeeded in this match. 


Brych was visibly very focused from the early stages of the match - the key reason why he lost the Belgium vs. Portugal tie earlier in the tournament was that he didn't pick up enough foul infractions and allowed the game to get away from him; the German was obviously determined that the same thing wouldn't happen again.

His solution to the potential yellow card in the first minute was perfect - no caution for Veratti as Olmo put his leg across, but a firm warning was certainly in order, and delivered by the German referee. 

For me, perhaps an even more key decision was a freekick whistled at 3' - Olmo went in deliberately late on Bonucci (still careless). While it would have been better if Brych had blown up instantly, still catching this offence at all, showed that the referee was approaching this game with the right approach. 


Much was made of the yellow card not given at 17', but for me no sanction was the best solution - the holding was not excessive (not LoR), and the attacker was vaguely running a bit wide. A yellow card would have been too much (at this moment), in my view. 

However, Brych did gamble a lot at 21' - Veratti should really have been cautioned after his second such from-behind foul, and on a control level, this was a sensible time in order to draw the line. It would have been a yellow card satisfying both technical correctness and tactical value. 

But the German referee held his nerve, in the conviction that this very lenient approach to disciplinary measures would work - and it did. The proof is in the pudding, and the match was calmer in the minutes after that. 


The last fifteen minutes of the first half were the weakest of the match in terms of foul recognition (missed fouls at 31', 34', 37'; wrong freekicks 38', 40'). To be fair, the intense concentration Brych put in during the earlier stages towards foul recognition simply wasn't replicable for the whole match. 

However, the German did very well to jump in with a warning at 35' after a deliberate foul - textbook refereeing! He solved deliberate charge (42') and potential SPA (44') incidents acceptably to round off the first half. 


Busquets did the referee a big favour at the start of the second half - having fouled Ciro Immobile at 51', with the game on edge, he decided to kick the ball at the floored Italy player. This gave Brych the perfect opportunity to issue a yellow card (nobody wanted a red), and the German referee obliged. So this card was actually not a 'weak' tactical choice, but a perfectly consistent one. 

The German referee visibly perceived the moments where he needed to increase his 'presence' on the pitch, smaller ways (57' moving in, 64' gestures), and also bigger too - Olmo could have counted himself fortunate not to be (finally) booked at 86', but Brych's warning was effective on a game management level. 

The ref missed two clear yellow cards in the second half - Olmo's challenge at 69' was definitely reckless on its own, while Jorginho was deliberately late at 87', and should have been booked. Brych managed to keep everything under control despite that; the second half drew to a close. 


Brych had already set the bar much higher for cautions than Tolói's SPA-ish tripping at 91', but the players did begin to get visibly less focused on playing the dynamic game they had unto now, and a bit more irritable in extra time. 

The caution at 97' was excellent, but it did get a bit messy in extra time (eg. missed foul at 95', dissent at 97'). The sequences in front of the benches at 99' risked quite a lot, and Brych had to shout back at Italy players in order to avoid a card for dissent. 

If Roberto Mancini was different-minded at 114' (Karasëv's reaction says a lot), the game could have been in for a big confrontation in this scene. And all avoidable if Brych had just whistled the simple freekick just before. 

The German ref was a bit lucky here - but I would say that he deserved, and earned his luck over the piece. After that, the correct caution at 118' aside, the end to the match was actually pretty quiet, and Brych could call time on an exciting and well-refereed EURO semifinal. 


Finally - should VAR have ordered the first kick of the penalty competition retaken? Goalkeeper Simón had one leg infront of the line, and another clearly behind. If Law 14 is clear in this regard, then the so-called Law 18 is much more authoritative in this matter for me (though IFAB should clarify exactly that point in the LotG!). 


 

Assistant Referees

Quiet challenging evening for both Mark Borsch (3', 5', 29', 35', 45', 47', 84', 103') and Stefan Lupp (13', 72', +93', 110', 114', 116'). Besides the 84' flag - correctly delayed - which seemed wrong, the long-time assistant referees of Germany's top referee dealt with their situations well. 

Balance

I am surprised that people assessed this as not really hard match to referee for Felix Brych, at least relatively. I strongly disagree! There were a very high number of foul duels to assess, and disciplinary control which needed to be approached with necessary delicateness; make no mistake, this was a very challenging game for the German. 

I don't want to dredge up 'that' match for the sake of it, but only to prove a wider point - in my view, this game was of much higher difficulty than Belgium vs. Portugal. By selecting the right approach in this semifinal, Brych made the match look much easier to the untrained eye than it really was. 

With his style, it seems Brych really cannot 'go deep' in foul recognition - so it is to his credit that for the opening stages, he acted on his feeling that he had to consistently detect the necessary offences in order to secure the game. 

In some respects, the German referee was just sensibly resisting avoidable cautions in a EURO semifinal, in others he actually risked quite a bit - to be fair, he jumped in excellently on more than one occasion; he deserves the benefit of doubt, and some strokes of luck which he received in isolated scenes. 

Summary: All in all, despite some deficiencies, this was a strong performance by an extremely experienced referee in a huge game. Without doubt, UEFA will be pleased - and for what's it is worth, I was too; well done Felix Brych.