Speaking in the aftermath of the controversial second round match between Portugal and Netherlands, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has voiced his disappointment with the job done by Russian referee Valentin Ivanov.
Ivanov showed his yellow card 16 times and his red card four times to bring the tournament total of red cads to 23.
‘I consider that today the referee was not at the same level as the participants, the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee,’ Blatter told Portugal’s SIC television channel.
‘This was a game of emotion, with exceptional drama in the last instant, with a deserved winner,’ her added. ‘It was a great show with intervention by the referee that was not consistent and (had) lack of fair play by some players.’
Portugal felt the brunt having had two players sent off in Costinha and Deco, and five cautioned. The Netherlands team suffered double yellow cards and subsequent reds to Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
I must say it was a pity that there was no football in the second half,’ said Dutch coach Marco van Basten.
‘The referee made a mess of it and Portugal used all their experience, all their tricks and time-wasting. We just couldn’t play. It was chaos and it should not happen this way at a World Cup.’
And chaos is what it did turn into after Portugal took the lead courtesy Maniche in the 23rd minute.
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari didn