The UEFA Nations League semifinals kicked off Tuesday. The new competition began with group play in the fall and concludes this week with the top league’s group winners playing a mini-tournament in Portugal.
Portugal took a lead in the first semifinal against Switzerland through a powerful Cristiano Ronaldo free kick. The Swiss then equalized in the most unusual of circumstances.
The incident occurred early in the second half. Switzerland sent a ball into the box, Steven Zuber fell to the pitch unable to reach the cross and Portugal cleared. The ball went down to the other end, where Bernardo Silva was taken down in the box.
Penalty to Portugal.
But wait, there’s VAR!
As is the case for all big matches around the world these days, the video assistant referee was in use Tuesday. VAR referred German referee Felix Brych, who had been sent home from officiating the 2018 World Cup for not utilizing VAR properly, to Switzerland’s offensive attack.
As replay showed (especially with the help of slow motion), Nelson Semedo had taken Zuber down. After a lengthy delay, Brych pointed to the spot, giving the penalty to Switzerland, not Portugal.
Ricardo Rodriguez then stepped up to the spot and equalized in the 57th minute, five minutes after the initial incident.
While some will complain about this use of VAR, you can’t argue it’s the wrong call in the end. Yes, the contact is negligible, but Zuber was certainly clipped in the box — a foul’s a foul.
Ian Darke, calling the match on ESPN2, put forth what I considered a curious complaint: If this match were a more serious rivalry, he said, “It could cause massive crowd trouble!” Really? That’s your worry when it comes to getting calls right, that fans might cause trouble?
Yes, fans might be a bit confused at first, but most stadiums are pretty good at informing fans when VAR is in use. A few boos aren’t going to kill anyone, but if you can’t trust fans to behave themselves when replace is used to get a call right, then maybe just play behind doors because that’s the dumbest thing ever.
Then again, English soccer fans are idiots and never seem to be able to behave themselves, so maybe Darke has a point.
Anyway, it didn’t matter in the end for Portugal, which won 3-1 thanks to two goals in the closing minutes from Ronaldo, who was clearly upset about missing an easy opportunity to add to his goal tally with a penalty kick.
First, Silva set up the Portuguese captain in the 88th minute, then Ronaldo did it himself to complete the hat trick in the 90th minute.
Cristiano Ronaldo AGAIN! He strikes late to give Portugal the lead! pic.twitter.com/zdA6N0EDPx
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 5, 2019
RONALDO MAKES IT THREE!
He gets his 7th career hat trick with Portugal! pic.twitter.com/98I4395sdD— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 5, 2019
Ronaldo now has 88 goals in international play, second-most all time and most among active players.
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates a goal with Bernardo Silva. Photo: Getty Images
Portugal will play either England or the Netherlands in the UEFA Nations League final on Sunday. Switzerland will play the loser in the third-place match on the same day.
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