Incident Five Studs-up Challenge
Immediately following incident four, Real Madrid #3 Pepe loses control of the ball and makes a studs-up challenge over the ball against Barcelona #2 Dani Alves. Barcelona players immediately surround Referee Stark and apply psychological pressure.
Although Stark did not have the best angle of view of the challenge, it is likely that he received assistance in this major decision. The 4th Official was perhaps in the best position to offer advice.
Also, perhaps some additional cautions would have been justified considering how many players surrounded the Referee. At the very least, Barcelona goalkeeper Valdes should have been cautioned.
If Mourinho told his players to tackle hard, press quickly and not give any space to his opponents to prevent them from playing football, what can he expect the consequences to be?
Also galling is the commentary by Andy Townsend, a former EPL player and all-round nice bloke. Townsend, like everyone else watching on the TV, had the benefit of slow-motion replays but still could not see any fault in Pepe's challenge. Here's what he said:
"It's the sort of ball that Pepe is entitled to go for. He rides out of one challenge and then the ball is loose and running towards Dani Alves.
As soon as Pepe made that challenge, Puyol and 7 or 8 Barcelona players sprinted directly at the referee.
See, I don't think that ... honestly that's a really poor decision, I really do. He's come out of one challenge, yes the foot is up, but the intent there is to play the ball. Sorry, the referee has got that one wrong. It's high, it may appear from the angle that he was at very dangerous, but it's a committed challenge, I'm afraid."
Sorry Andy, nice bloke that you are, I'm afraid we don't know what Pepe's intent was (we can't read his mind). However from Pepe's actions, we can say that there is a good chance that it was cynical. Pepe endangered the safety of his opponent, and considering the nature of the challenge and the atmosphere of the match, a red card was appropriate.
Here are some other "committed challenges" for Andy and others to ponder (see
http://hkref.blogspot.com/search?q=cynical).