Miroslav Stupar: "Kalitvintsev must have been ashamed of such a penalty"

In the 6th round of the UPL, two matches featured game episodes that had a considerable resonance in football circles due to inadequate decisions by the referee. Myroslav Stupar, a well-known referee in the past, analysed these moments and assessed the work of the referees:

"I'll start with the Polissia vs Obolon match, when in stoppage time the home striker and the away defender were engaged in a positional struggle for the ball after a cross. Referee Viktor Kopiyevskyi, in keeping with the football spirit, initially did not react to this rivalry until VAR referee Yaroslav Kozyk advised him to pay attention to the fall of the Polissia forward. After reviewing the episode, Kopiyevsky changed his mind, awarding a dubious penalty to Kyiv for the defender stepping on the striker's heel somewhere.

But even if you interpret this offence in this way, it does not warrant a yellow card, and Kopiyevsky issued a warning to Taras Moroz. As it was the second, the 'brewer' had to leave the pitch. At first glance, there were formal signs for such a "sentence". Such moments happen quite often in every match, but they are mostly ignored.

By the way, after the penalty, the entire Polissia bench celebrated the goal, except for head coach Yurii Kalytvintsev. He was sitting calmly, and it seemed as if he was ashamed of the penalty, which turned out to be the winning goal. But, of course, this did not make it easier for Obolon.

The second controversial episode took place in the 73rd minute of the Rukh vs Metalist 1925 match. The visitors' midfielder Yaroslav Martyniuk threw the ball into the home team's penalty area at speed, and one of the Lviv defenders stuck out his leg, which was tripped by the Kharkiv player. The penalty is obvious.

However, referee Serhiy Zadiran had a different view, punishing Martyniuk for the simulation with a yellow card. And since it turned out to be the second, the guests were in the minority. The referee's mistake almost cost the visitors a point.

In my opinion, Martyniuk has every reason to appeal to the Referees' Committee to have the second warning cancelled, and then the player will be lucky to avoid penalties," Stupar said.