Whilst the Dutch were a bit overphysical, the TV analysts were going well OTT last night. The hyperbole really served no purpose. "The Dutch should be down to 8 men at H/T". No. No they shouldn't. De Jong could count himself lucky, I certainly wouldn't have complained if he'd been sent off. However, some of the other incidents they were pointing at were ridiculous. Van Bommel rightly saw yellow for a late, clumsy tackle. He then slightly mis-timed a tackle a few minutes later and Shearer/Hansen are saying it should have been a second yellow! I'm sorry, if we're going to start sending people off for that we might as well all give up on the game of football and do something else.
I think there needs to be some change to the advantage rule, perhaps along the lines of rugby. After all, Robben stayed on his feet despite Puyol trying to haul him down (an offence for which he would have seen red). He then messes up the finish. Result? No goal and Puyol stays on the pitch. That just isn't fair.
Mind you, Robben should have seen a second yellow for utter stupidity when he kicked the ball away.
Personally I was far more angered by the Spanish approach last night. Endless diving and badgering of the referee. Every time there was a foul you saw the Spaniards running up to Webb and the old waving of the imaginery card. I wanted to run into the TV and smack Iniesta and Capdevilla in the mouth.
It was a very difficult game to refereee. I thought Webb just about avoided a farcical performance, which looked possible given the tackles flying in and the diving and backchat. However, he did bottle some big decisions. 4 or 5 out of 10 for the ref I'd say. 3 out of 10 for the quality of football on show.