57 ITAFRA Dallas

 

Roberto Baggio could rue a golden goal miss, and Luigi Di Biagio hitting the decisive penalty against the crossbar as France survived a very tight quarterfinal to advance to the semis of their home World Cup. Scoreless after one-hundred and twenty minutes, it was the hosts who prevailed in a spot kick shootout; for three World Cups running, Italy were eliminated having lost a penalty competition. 

Hugh Dallas got the call to referee this high risk match - the Scotsman convincingly delivered his group stage match (BELMEX) and was appointed directly to the quarterfinal round. Dallas handled the occasion well - he did a good job again. 

Big Decisions

The most relevant individual scene was the Stéphane Guivarc’h striking offence at 53, see below.

Guivarc’h was shown the yellow card by the referee. This decision is interesting as the-powers-that-be took a much dimmer view of elbow offences like this than they do today - that being said, I think Dallas got this one right. An elbow which isn't loaded, used as a tool rather than a weapon, caution. 

Managing the Game

Hugh Dallas faced quite an interesting task as referee, this tie contained a very high number of star players - the Scottish referee chose an approach that worked well for the match. 

The most obviously notable facet of this performance was the quite supercilious leadership style which Dallas opted for - this gave an evidently confident impression, the players responded well to this; a choice which calmed, not inflamed them. 

In the first (fifteen) minutes, the Scottish ref whistled pedantically for freekicks, but 'released' the game after that. He also did one thing quite excellently given the events of recent matches - a very clear warning for holding in the penalty area at 8'. The players heeded the message. 


Disciplinary control was decent in the first half:

- no card after advantage at 18' was okay

- smart / very good opening card at 26', for a deliberate charge

- correct yellow card at 28' (not a dive), but a missed advantage, very promising attack

- 37' does seem surely the last time that Lilian Thuram would get so far forward (:D), his tackle on goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca was actually reckless (theoretically, SFP even close-ish); to be honest I wasn't 100% convinced with Dallas' solution, but fine

- Didier Deschamps ought to have been cautioned for his 39' tackle

-  no problem with assessing Giuseppe Bergomi's kick as careless (42')


The Guivarc’h elbow at the start of the second half put the players on edge, similar to 37', I don't think it is unfair charge that the Scots referee could have done more to calm everyone down before restarting play in this scene; one had the feeling that Dallas was not totally in control of everything in these two scenes. 

As a consequence, there were a couple of contretemps in the second half (56', 71'), the latter even sported an act that definitely wasn't a violent conduct, but David Beckham (ARGENG) could have watched with some frustration, at least assessing the actions in isolation. 

The excellence in the corner warning at 53', a smart yellow card to Deschamps (63'), and correctly assessing Laurent Blanc's 81' tackle as both a foul, and a careless one supported by gestures, were very good facets of a widely good performance by Dallas. 


There was a pretty hilarious moment in extra time - at 108', Dallas went for his back pocket to reach for ... a handkerchief! Alessandro Costacurta should actually have been booked in that scene for an off-the-ball foul, wasn't, but the referee did get him about five minutes later for a comparable infraction. Extra time was mostly quiet for the Scotsman. 


Unlike Argentina - England, both goalkeepers displayed the ability to save penalties whilst remaining on the line before the ball is kicked in the penalty competition. After Di Biagio's kick struck the crossbar, Hugh Dallas ran for the loose ball and blew the ceremonial final whistle simultaneously; France had won through. 

Assistant Referees

Very challenging match for Nicolae Grigorescu, who had to face eleven(!) offside scenes upon which to judge. Unfortunately, many of them we can't judge for lack of replays / widescreen. From those which we could see, the Romanian fared well, but did make a tight mistake at 78'. 

Mark Warren was a bit quieter, with only two offside flags - the Englishman was fortunate that the ball to Christian Vieri at 96' wasn't that much better so that Vieri chipped in a golden goal, because it would have been wrongly disallowed: Vieri was onside (- 0,2 in UEFA).

Only one of these two officials would return to the Stade de France later in the tournament!  

Balance

Hugh Dallas reffed this game in high-focus well - the confidence from the players which the Scottish referee managed to arouse with his manner was key to success in this tie. Even though there were some deficiencies, the overall picture is definitely a positive one for this game's officiating. 

World Cup 1998 only enhanced Dallas' reputation, who was then consistently appointed for high level matches by UEFA. France - Italy marked the end of a successful competition for the Scotsman. 

Hugh Dallas - 7 Mark Warren - 6 Nicolae Grigorescu - 7 Said Belqola SCO, ENG, ROU	Italy 0-0 France (aet, France win 3-4 in a penalty competition) Quarterfinal 3 July
Del Piero (26') - Challenge Bergomi (28') - SPA (Challenge) Costacurta (113') - SPA (Holding)	Guivarc’h (53') - Striking Deschamps (63') - SPA (Impeding)