(23) Italy-Germany
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Italy were left to rue a ninth minute penalty miss by Gianfranco Zola, as they failed to score in the remaining eighty minutes and only achieved a scoreless draw against Germany, not enough to advance through the 'group of death' at Euro 1996; the Azzurri were eliminated by their head-to-head record against the Czech Republic. In a high-pressure match punctuated by feverish excitement in the crowd, Germany remained defensively resolute throughout and impressively shut out their opponents.
The aforementioned penalty was correctly awarded by the match referee Guy Goethals, after a clear trip by Germany goalkeeper Andreas Kopke on Pierluigi Casiraghi. Goethals, referee at Euro 1992 and only denied what would have been a sure place at World Cup '94 by injury, had announced that this tournament would mark the end of his career as a referee - and this would prove his final ever match. The referee from Belgium handled the game quite well, but his candidacy for any further assignments in Euro'96 ended after eight minutes: while the penalty award was correct, Goethals did not issue any sanction to Kopke; replays revealing the deliberateness of the keeper's trip, UEFA said that a red card should have been shown.
The aforementioned penalty was correctly awarded by the match referee Guy Goethals, after a clear trip by Germany goalkeeper Andreas Kopke on Pierluigi Casiraghi. Goethals, referee at Euro 1992 and only denied what would have been a sure place at World Cup '94 by injury, had announced that this tournament would mark the end of his career as a referee - and this would prove his final ever match. The referee from Belgium handled the game quite well, but his candidacy for any further assignments in Euro'96 ended after eight minutes: while the penalty award was correct, Goethals did not issue any sanction to Kopke; replays revealing the deliberateness of the keeper's trip, UEFA said that a red card should have been shown.
The incident was a result of a poor defensive pass by Sammer, and I suspect that Goethals was caught 'on the hop', and may even have deemed Sammer (rather than Kopke) as the offender on the field of play. Kopke stayed on, saved Zola's penalty, and the match did turn on this sequence; hard to argue with the rating of 'clear match error', I think. Germany though did play the last half-hour with ten men after Thomas Strunz was shown a second yellow card (justifiably), for a late challenge on Roberto Donadoni.
Goethals had an interesting, actually rather unorthodox style of refereeing: he stalked the centre of the field positionally, and his big strength, perhaps more than technical accuracy, was leadership style. I can imagine actually that UEFA would have rated this overall performance very highly (for me it was good, but with some doubts) and his chances of going further would have been strong. It is sad when it works out like this, but such is life (especially in top level sport) sometimes: Goethals had the unfortunate ceremonial indignity of what was his farewell game being deemed as a 'fail' by the powers-that-be.
Guy Goethals' performance in this match was rejected by UEFA.
Matchsheet
| Guy Goethals - 5 Marc Van Den Broeck - 7 Stany Op De Beeck - 7 Michel Piraux (assessor: ridden) | Italy 0-0 Germany Weds 19June 730pm, Manchester Group Stage |
Ita  Casiraghi (7') - Tackle | Ger Strunz (11') - SPA (Tackle) Strunz (60') - Challenge |
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