The first meeting in the Golden Square brought together the Egyptian team and its Tunisian counterpart, and ended with the victory of the “Carthage Eagles” with a reverse goal scored by Pharaohs player Amr Al-Sulayya in the last seconds of the match.
After the match ended, a number of sports programs indicated that the Egyptian player Marwan Hamdi deserved to get a penalty kick in the first half, and that the Tunisian team’s goal came in the 90 + 4 minute, although the referee counted only 3 minutes as added time.
A penalty kick for the match between Tunisia and Egypt, the opinions of analysts were divided about it, which mitigated the wave of criticism directed at the referee of the meeting, but the arbitration performance in the other meeting of the golden square that brought together Algeria and Qatar had the lion’s share of controversy.
In a dramatic way, Algeria advanced through Jamal Eddine Belamri in the 59th minute, and when the 90th minute of the match passed, the referee gave 9 minutes of added time. In the 90+7 minute, the Qatari team scored the equalizer with a perfect header from Mohamed Muntari.
While everyone was waiting for the extra games, the referee awarded a penalty kick to the Algerian team, which Youssef Belaili failed to score directly, but he followed it into the net after it bounced from the Qatar goalkeeper in the 17th minute of stoppage time, scoring the goal for his country.
The referee of the match between Algeria and Qatar was subjected to harsh criticism, as many saw that the referee exaggerated in calculating the overtime, which exceeded the time of a full overtime period.
performance analysis
For his part, the former international referee, Ahmed El-Shennawy, says that “the arbitration performance in the semi-finals of the Arab Championship was not at the level of the event.”
Al-Shennawy added to “Sky News Arabia”: “The laws indicate that the referee cannot extend the lost time from the match unless a penalty kick is awarded, so there is no justification for the referee of the match between Egypt and Tunisia, who allowed to continue playing after the overtime that he calculated in the half. The second, especially that his decision directly affected the outcome of the match.”
After the match between the Pharaohs and the Carthage Eagles, the coach of the Egyptian national team, Carlos Queiroz, attacked the referee of the match, demanding the selection of better referees in the important matches.
Al-Shennawy moves to the arbitration performance of the Qatar-Algeria match, saying: “The arbitration performance in the African and Asian champions match was much better than its counterpart in the Egypt-Tunisia match.”
Al-Shennawi added: “Although the match was interrupted a lot during the second half, I think that calculating 9 minutes as a spare time was not an appropriate decision by the referee, but his calculation of a penalty kick for the Algerian team in the last seconds of the meeting dispels all accusations that indicate that he is not neutral, and was He wants to help (Al Annabi) to score the equalizer.”
Al-Shennawy explains that the referee of the Algeria-Qatar match was distinguished in his decisions during the match as a whole, and that the circumstances of the meeting were what caused this controversy after its end.
Al-Shennawy concludes his speech to “Sky News Arabia”: “In general, the refereeing performance in the Arab Championship so far is more than good, and we hope to see a final that serves as the conclusion of this strong championship.”
reactions
With the end of the two semi-final matches of the (Arab Cup), social networking sites were buzzing with many reactions to the exciting events of the Golden Square.
The beginning with the former Egyptian player, Ahmed Hossam “Mido”, who attacked Queiroz for criticizing the referee of the match, noting that the Portuguese coach was the reason for the Pharaohs team’s exit from the semi-finals of the tournament.
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