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The delay before a decision was reached in Friday night’s game between the Netherlands and France has irked a former Premier League midfielder.
Craig Burley has criticised Premier League officials Anthony Taylor and Stuart Attwell after Friday’s Euro 2024 match between France and the Netherlands.
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22:12 - 21.06.2024
Netherlands 0-0 France: Mbappe missing, Griezmann wasteful and 4 observations in boring EURO 2024 draw
Group D favourites France failed to squeeze out three points against Netherlands' Oranje with key man Kylian Mbappe a mere spectator.
What happened?
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Xavi Simons thought he won the game for the Oranje with 20 minutes to play but the on-field decision of offside following the linesman’s raised flag led to an extended check.
Ultimately, the VAR Attwell deemed Denzel Dumfries to have been in the way of Mike Maignan, seeing the goal chalked off.
However, the time it took to reach that decision was criticised by Burley, who scoffed at the typical nature of the delay with Premier League referees.
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“For me, it was absolutely crystal clear within the laws of the game to be offside,” said the former Scotland international on ESPN.
“The only thing that surprised me, and it was English officials because every other decision at this tournament has been unfussy.
“If Mike Maignan dives, he’s going to hit Denzel Dumfries. The on-field decision was correct, it was the VAR Stuart Attwell, English VAR who dithered and dallied about the whole thing and that’s why we were all waiting.”
What comes next?
France and the Netherlands have four points after two games, and both are expected to advance to the round of 16, even if first place is up for grabs. Les Blues play Poland in their final group fixture while Ronald Koeman's men face Austria.
The second round of group-stage games at Euro 2024 concludes with Saturday’s games involving Georgia and Czechia, Turkey and Portugal and Belgium against Romania.
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