Hand of history on shoulder of referee Kassai

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI was expressing quiet confidence that Ireland can beat Estonia over two legs to qualify for the European Championship finals when he added the caveat that football is an unpredictable game.

“You can play well and still lose the game to an error or a penalty or a referee’s mistake,” he pointed out.

Ah yes, refereeing mistakes — a topic which won’t be too far from the minds of Irish fans as they gear up for tonight’s play-off against Estonia, a game which comes just a week short of two years since referee Martin Hansson and his team of Swedish officials were exposed to international ridicule for failing to spot Thierry Henry’s ‘Hand Of Gaul’ in the Stade de France.

Could lightning strike twice?

There’s no doubting the big game credentials of the man in charge in the A Le Coq Arena tonight, Hungarian Viktor Kassai having officiated at the Germany v Spain World Cup semi-final in South Africa in 2010 as well as last year’s Champions League final in which Barcelona beat Manchester United at Wembley. But since he’d brought referees into it himself, I decided to ask Trapattoni yesterday if he thought the controversy surrounding Ireland’s last play-off would make it less likely that a significant refereeing error would decide this one.

But Trap saw me coming.

“I think never about the referee,” he deadpanned. “I believe in the referees. Of course, referees can make mistakes. But I don’t have any preconceptions about the referee.”

Hmm. Still, they always like to remind us refs are human, don’t they?

So, for all Trap’s studied reserve on the subject, perhaps it’s just possible that Mr Kassai will feel a certain hand of history on his shoulder when he blows the whistle on Estonia versus Ireland in Tallinn tonight.