(19) Netherlands-England

 

Highlights

Report

'The England-Holland game', or "the best major tournament performance I've seen from an England side" very nearly put the Netherlands out - and was also well-handled by the Austrian referee, Gerd Grabher. 

Some analysis about the refereeing:

Key Match Incidents: England were rightly awarded a penalty mid-way through the first half for a clear trip by Danny Blind on Paul Ince (clip). Referee Gerd Grabher had followed the England counterattack well, and was perfectly placed to award the spot-kick. In an incident a couple of minutes earlier, replays showed that England should also have been awarded a(nother) penalty - the replays are inarguable, Aron Winter caught Teddy Sheringham on the shin (clip). Besides the comment that were Grabher positioned deeper and lefter, he may well have even awarded a penalty, this scene is a good one to underline the difference between Euro'96-times and today's football, where a video assistant would recommend an on-field review quicker than you can say 'clear and obvious error'; times have certainly changed!

Managing the Game: Very good in this regard by Grabher, who displayed a perfect rendition of the style of refereeing desired by UEFA in this tournament. He awarded six yellow cards and showed a good understanding of the game in his card choices. The match was, in technical spects, among the lesserly challenging matches of the Euro'96 group stage. One amusing incident happened just before halftime (clip) where the referee had the fortune that, for instance, the referee of the previous game lacked in the Bordeaux-Milan quarterfinal of the Cup Winners Cup a few months prior. Both linesmen were good; Egon Bereuter would, twelve years later, also stand in a further two Euro finals matches with Konrad Plautz.

UEFA were very satisfied with Gerd Grabher's performance in this match, and considered him as a candidate to referee further matches in Euro 1996. Some contextual words to conclude this report follow.

Aftermath: To allude to two topics touched on in an above paragraph - if, unlike Ahmet Cakar (33yrs) who was a young referee who came across as older, Gerd Grabher was a referee with a generally youthful presence but was actually quite close to retirement age (43yrs). 1996 was something of a 'rollercoaster' year for the Austrian ref in international football. As I mention in the left-sided bulletin of this blog, the twenty-four quarterfinals of the three club competitions were used by UEFA to help pair each match in the Euro'96 group stage with its referee. Grabher must have impressed the committee in another Cup Winners Cup quarterfinal, the first leg of a 'Spanish derby', in order to be selected for one of the three home nation matches at Wembley. However, the year ended on a sour note for the Austrian - his international consideration fell into demerit after a very poor performance in a Champions League tie in November between Porto and AC Milan, where he lost control of the game. The events of this match caused big trouble for UEFA, when in the tunnel after the game, George Weah headbutted Jorge Costa and the Liberian striker was suspended for six matches. Grabher did not receive any UEFA assignments after the Porto match in the 96/97 season and Gunter Benko, reserve in this match, became the 'Austrian no1'.

Matchsheet

Gerd Grabher - 7 Egon Bereuter - 7 Manfred Zeiszer - 7 Günter Benkö (assessor: malka)	Netherlands 1-4 England Tues 18June 730pm, London Group Stage
Ned  Winter (19') - LoR (Holding)  Blind (22') - Dissent  Bergkamp (67') - Challenge	Eng  Sheringham (41') - Tackle  Ince (43') - SPA (Holding)  Southgate (90') - Challenge