Talking Points from the Aston Villa vs Liverpool FA Cup Semi-Final

Mario Balotelli – Flickr Creative Commons

I. Referees Make Mistakes

Let’s get this one out of the way, because it will surely be a point of contention for many Liverpool fans. In the 88th minute, Mario Balotelli scored what would have been the tying goal, but was given the offside flag. This was the wrong decision, as Balotelli had clearly been onside as the ball was played in.

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Mistakes happen, and given that there were four offside calls against Balotelli (according to WhoScored.com), perhaps the linesman was reacting more than observing. It’s unfortunate, and despite my allegiances to the Claret and Blue side, I’m not going to argue that it was the right call.

However, throughout the match there were several poor decisions made by the referee Michael Oliver. He seemed quite reluctant to use any cards, with the intention of allowing play to continue resulting in several card-worthy challenges.

While Fabian Delph received a yellow for a clipping tackle (which gave Steven Gerrard the opportunity to take a weak free kick directly at Shay Given), Alberto Moreno was given license to chop down players at will, including a brutal challenge on Jack Grealish that received a small talking-to from Oliver when any other referee would have easily given yellow.