Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Gomes cocked up and arguably Clatter was right withing the rules of the game. But surely when a ref decides to play in and give the advantage to a side , if there turns out to be no advantage shouldnt he have given the foul retrospectively?
He waved his arms to signalled "no free kick" for the dive by Nani - there was no question of the referee playing advantage, it was that he didn't feel an offence had been committed by either side in relation to Nani hitting the deck. Where Nani fell over, the ball was out of the referee's view, and I would suggest that he simply didn't see it (rightly or wrongly)
I think the linesman will cop for this one when it comes out in the wash. He didn't start flagging until after the ball had gone in the net. The linesman cannot claim he was offering advantage for the handball he witnessed, as it is not in the linesman's remit to see how play pans out, his role is very black and white - was there an offence or was there not. He didnt indicate there had been an offence and therefore as far as the referee is concerned, the ball was 100% in play and legitimate when Nani scored.