Well, at least the two matches were completed today.
But you have to see one of the most absurd refereeing decisions in history.
Carlos Velasco Carballo of Spain saw THIS fit for a second yellow and a red. After carding Sokratis Papastathopoulos nine minutes earlier with the match 1-0 for the hosts, a slight bump in the 44th minute is enough for Carballo to send the Greek player off for a second yellow and leave the team with ten men.
(You can see the ESPN clip of the incident on the Gamecast of the match here. UEFA is already judiciously removing clips of the incident right and left from YouTube. Click on the red card for Greece at the 44th minute of the timeline just below the commentary and main "screen" of the Gamecast, and a clip of the incident will be shown. Closer replay is at 39 seconds of the ESPN Gamecast clip.)
Hell, if the referee is going to be THAT harsh, wouldn't that be a straight red for, effectively, a DOGSO (Denial Of a Goal-Scoring Opportunity) if Carballo wants to be that idiotic? If he's going to rule an elbow for that, he might as well go all the way to DOGSO, because it's clear that Papastathopoulos is the last defender who can reasonably play the Polish player until the goalkeeper about 40-50 yards away!
And then ANOTHER incident in first-half stoppage time against the Greeks (45 minutes on the timeline, replay at about 48 seconds on the clip), three minutes later, as a clear handball in the box by Damien Perquis goes uncalled, and another player goes in the book for Greece. And only a very astute captain prevented several more.
If the officials have been told to card players mobbing the referee, as the announcers note, Greece could've gotten about 4-5 more yellow cards for those two incidents.
And yet, Greece, even at 10, equalize ten minutes into the second half and should've won the game on a 68th minute penalty in which the Polish keeper was sent off for a DOGSO challenge, but his substitute saved the penalty, and the match ends a farcical 1-1.
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