Pierluigi Collina reckons Sergio Ramos deserved another crack

Pierluigi Collina reckons Sergio Ramos deserved another crack at the penalty in the Croatia match as the shot he had taken originally was wrongly stopped by the opposition goalie.

Danijel Subasic was in charge of the goal post of Croatia in that particular match and moved forward way too earlier than he should have. His feet were actually ahead of the goal-line even before Ramos had made any contact with the ball.

The soccer rulebook does not allow a goalie to do so and so the save was clearly invalid, but, the main referee or even the linesmen failed to take note of it and it went down in the papers as a missed penalty.

The conversion of that penalty might have given Spain a victory over Croatia. It was one-all at that point of time and it could have proven to be a winner which could have set up Croatia’s meeting with Italy rather than Spain’s.

According to Collina, not always do the goalies happen to be out of positions when the penalty kicks are executed. Most of the time, they remain where they should be and thus, it is understandable why the referee, on that occasion, was not too keen on keeping an eye on the feet of the Croatian goalie, but, because of the fact that penalties are enormously important, a referee must always be alert and ensure that neither of the goalie or the shot taker is breaking any rule.

Collina, the supremo of the match officials who work under the Union of European Football Associations, however also believes that the players should have the knowledge of the rules themselves as the match officials at work can’t be telling each one of them what the rules are.

SERGIO RAMOS IMPROVES PERFORMANCE FOR MADRID AS THEY GIVE LA LIGA TITLE FINAL PUSH

Real Madrid captain and defender, Sergio Ramos played decent football as the club make final push for the La Liga title this season.

Real Madrid kept their La Liga title hopes alive until the final fixture of the season with a vital victory over Valencia at the Santiago Bernabeu. The victory was much more cherised as Atletico Madrid blew their chance at the title as they lost. League leaders, Barcelona won their in style, pushing the league competition to the last round of games.

The game for Madrid was also became the stadium’s farewell to Alvaro Arbeloa. This event somehow distracted both the squad and the fans, as what was a key match for the title race became a leaving do for the hosts well before the final whistle.

For this match, coach Zinedine Zidane missed four starters: Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Daniel Carvajal and Keylor Navas did not even make the bench due to minor injuries. The improvised lineup worked out well for the Frenchman in the first 45 minutes, but his second half substitutions and a revived Valencia forced Real Madrid to struggle mightily to grind out a win.

The La Liga title will be decided next weekend. Barcelona, with a one-point advantage plus the tiebreaker, travel to Granada. Real Madrid, at La Coruna, will have to win their match and hope Barcelona do not win theirs.

Ramos played much better than he was in previous months. He was Real Madrid’s last man standing on several occasions in the second half, Casilla’s only help against Valencia’s front line.

He would need more of such decent performance to help their new coach lift a trophy in his first season in charge as they have the UEFA Champions League also to contend for.