October 15
"Disallowing two legitimate goals is no small matter": Poor assessment of the French referee and his assistants
The Champions League match between Roma and Real Madrid witnessed a number of controversial refereeing decisions. French referee François Letixxer's performance was far from ideal, according to an Italian assessment that analyzed the most prominent moments of the match at the Stadio Olimpico.
Letixxer had already faced criticism about three months prior following controversy surrounding his performance in the 2016 World Cup Round of 16 match between Egypt and Argentina. He disallowed a goal for the Pharaohs and failed to award two penalties, decisions that were questioned by refereeing experts.
Controversy seems to follow Leixël wherever he goes, but this time it was less pronounced, amidst Italian criticism following the French referee's decisions in the Roma-Real Madrid match.
Italian newspapers highlighted errors in offside calls that led to the disallowance of two legitimate goals, noting that "the responsibility for these errors does not lie solely with the main referee, but is shared with his assistants, while technology resolved some cases and corrected the situation."
Leixser and his assistants make offside calls... and technology intervenes.
It wasn't an exceptional match for French referee Leixser, who must share responsibility for the errors with his assistants.
The report explained that the referee and his assistants failed to handle offside situations effectively, and their understanding of some of these situations was quite poor, leading to the disallowance of two goals that should have stood.
The newspapers added that disallowing two legitimate goals is no small matter at this level of competition, even while acknowledging that technology is capable of exceeding human capabilities in such cases and reaching accurate decisions.
On the other hand, the report indicated that the French referee adopted a high standard in awarding fouls from the start of the match and maintained the same approach even in crucial situations inside the penalty area.
According to the statistics in the evaluation, Leixser awarded 23 fouls during the match and issued four yellow cards, noting that he failed to give an additional yellow card that Marc Cucurella deserved after he grabbed and impeded Solly.
Italian newspapers gave the French referee a rating of 6 out of 10.
Did Bellingham deserve a penalty against Roma?
Real Madrid protested, demanding a penalty for Jude Bellingham in a play that preceded Malen's goal, which was initially disallowed for offside.
The assessment explained that there was indeed contact between Mancini and Bellingham's left foot, but it was minimal and not enough to warrant a penalty.
Therefore, the report deemed the decision not to award a penalty to the Real Madrid player correct, despite the club's protests.
Roma and Real Madrid goals
The assessment addressed several goal-scoring incidents, confirming that all goals were valid except for Mbappé's, which was disallowed for offside.
Mallen's disallowed goal initially:
Süle passed the ball to Malen at a time when the Dutch striker appeared to be offside, prompting the second assistant referee, Rahmouni, to raise his flag.
But semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) corrected the decision, after showing that Federico Valverde was keeping all players in the correct position, and therefore Malen's goal was valid and did not deserve to be disallowed.
Espey's goal was valid despite the doubts.
The assessment also confirmed the validity of Carlos Espey's goal, explaining that it came after a header from Indric was saved by goalkeeper Gollini, before the ball fell to Espey who followed up and put it into the net.
The report indicated that Wesley was the key player in keeping Espey onside, as he delayed advancing to execute the offside trap. Molina also contributed to keeping the Real Madrid striker onside.
Mbappé's disallowed goal was offside.
The assessment indicated that the decision to disallow Kylian Mbappé's goal was correct, as replays showed he was slightly ahead of De Roon's left heel when the ball was passed to him, which put him in an offside position.
VAR assessment: Dutch referee Hegler gave the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) a rating of 6.5 out of 10, noting that he faced a lot of work during the match, but the technology facilitated his task in reviewing incidents and making the right decisions.
