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After yesterday's extremely tense and intense eighth-final match between Portugal and the Netherlands, during which Russian referee Valentinas Ivanov showed 16 yellow cards and even 4 red ones, the arbiter received quite a lot of criticism.
Both the Dutch and the Portuguese did not spare their criticism towards the Russian referee. "In my three and a half years as a coach of the Portuguese national team, I have never finished a match with only nine players," says Portugal's national team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. - "There were extreme actions in both teams, however, Deco's expulsion was a provocation."
The dissatisfaction with the referees' work was also expressed by Dutch coach Marco van Basten: "It's a shame that the referee turned the game into a mess."
There was also a lot of criticism towards the referee from FIFA president Sepp Blatter: "A yellow card could have been shown to the referee as well. He was on a different level than the players. It was an emotional game, with an extraordinary drama at the end of the match and a worthy winner," says Blatter, whose evaluation of the match could also mean the sunset of V. Ivanov's international career.
"It was an interesting spectacle, into which the referee intervened, who was inconsistent, and some players did not show noble principles of the game at all."
