Ireland 2-1 Armenia: Presumably FAI Will Ask UEFA For Replay After Dreadful Refereeing Decision? (Photos & Highlights)

Alan Duffy

12th, October 2011

18 Comments

By Alan Duffy


Two years after Thierry Henry’s infamous handball in France’s World Cup play-off with the Republic of Ireland, the Irish finally received some kind of footballing karma at the Aviva Stadium, courtesy of another appalling refereeing decision, this time by Spanish official Eduardo Ganzalez.

The referee sent off Armenian ‘keeper Roman Berezovsky on 26 minutes after he blocked an attempted lob by Simon Cox outside the box with his arm. However, Gonzalez and his assistants failed to spot Cox himself controlling the ball with his own arm before he tried his lob.

“It just came over my shoulder and I tried to control it,” Cox explained. “Some you get, some you don’t, but I don’t think it was a handball by the keeper.”

The Irish then profited from a dreadful own-goal, knocked in to his own net by a hapless Valeri Aleksanyan just before the break. Richard Dunne added a second on the hour and despite Henrikh Mkhitaryan getting one back for the visitors and Kevin Doyle seeing red late on, Ireland stumbled over the finishing line, making it through to the play-offs.

The FAI Chief Executive John Delaney did not release the following statement:  “Conclusive video evidence of a clear handball……. has been seen by millions of football fans worldwide. The blatantly incorrect decision by the referee to award a goal has damaged the integrity of the sport. We now call on FIFA as the world governing body for our sport to organize for this match to be replayed.”

Photos…

 

Highlights…

Photos: PA

Posted in Euro 2012, International football, Photos, Videos

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18 Comments

  1. gamblino says:

    2-1 against Armenia.. the glory! The baying for a card by Ireland players is pretty slack.

  2. AO says:

    The commentator is hilarious!

  3. Montesquieu says:

    Fairplay, something you don’t see nowadays, although Ireland does seem to have a knack for it. Good on them. At least they haven’t descended to the levels of France or Portugal that will cheat their way into anything.

  4. mike s says:

    Besides the awful call this was a fantastic match. There was a point in the beginning where Movsisyan knocked the ball past Given in a one-on-one situation and, in my eyes, could have easily simulated a foul and probably would have won a PK. Instead, he kept chasing the ball until it went out of play and Given ran back and shook his hand, with both players smiling. I would say 99.9/100 players would have gone for the dive there, it was a wonderful moment.

  5. Tinez says:

    @mike

    If Movsisyan had dived there, when given pulled out of the challenge about 3 yards before he got Movsisyan, then they’d be cancelling the diving competition at the olympics and giving all the gold medals to him.

  6. murry1975 says:

    The ref was bad , not just normal refereeing bad , bad as in STD bad .Example- Cox had a goal disallowed – he challeneged the keeper , the keeper went down , the ref waved play-on , no flag from assitant , keeper drops the ball Cox puts it in THEN the ref blows for a foul , unsporting yes , foul no . Thank – insert own deity- he was retiring after this game , he constantly got decisions wrong , not just the odd hand ball , woeful .

  7. There's only one John Tierney says:

    First of all, Henry’s handball was 2 years ago. Secondly, it DIRECTLY led to a goal. Yeah he shouldn’t have been red carded, but it looks like it hit his hands because he threw them up when he came out of the box. Henry may as well have picked the ball up! There is no comparison here Pies, don’t be sour.

  8. Alan Duffy says:

    @ There’s only one etc etc….

    That’s us told then!

  9. Redskywalker says:

    Hahaha great ‘quote’ Alan

  10. Dusty says:

    The ball hit the goalies outstretched arm outside the box, the red card was the right call… How the ball maybe glancing off Cox’s arm is even comparable I don’t get.

    Very petty article.

  11. pikoriko says:

    FIXED!

  12. wwkkd says:

    You surprise and disappoint me pies…

  13. Flo says:

    all irishmen should just shut their big mouths up !

  14. murry1975 says:

    @Flo , please elaborate woman .

  15. Well said Tierney. It was a bad ref. It was a poor game. Don’t compare it to that night in Paris lads – that’s taking the piss. The handball incident did not lead to a goal and certainly did not lead to one of the teams losing a playoff.
    As for Miss Flo above, who can only be at most 11 years old considering the manner of a so-called insult used (an insult which must be call for a PIES inquest), please come back to us when you have a more appropriate retort thought up – perhaps something along the lines of ‘big smelly poopyheads’ would suit your intelligence level.

  16. Tom Jones says:

    Estonia for the win!!!!!!

  17. CDN Guy says:

    I was at the game. The game was 0-0 at the time of the red card. It changed the game completely! Anyone who says otherwise knows nothing about soccer. Especially when you consider Armenia needed a win. So imagine having to press for goals while playing a man down! Soccer is an archaic sport … the only major sport that doesn’t use replays at all! Pathetic! How many more hand balls have to cost the better team games? How many more goals have to be disallowed? Get with the times FIFA! I can only hope that something like this happens to the USA in an important game. Then when the wrath the US media descends upon FIFA, finally we will get some change. Don’t believe me? Just ask the International Skating Union when the judges got caught fixing the results at the Olympics … and that didn’t even involve an American athlete. Finally, remember all the Irish calls for Henri to have manned up during the game? Funny how the Irish are all quiet now. I guess Armenia is owed now and will make the World Cup.

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