A decision that didn't need making

YES - United out of europe is funny. Yes - United out of europe screwed by a ref is particularly funny.

But this was an occasion that was more than simply a United champions league tie. It was an occasion where those of us who can only get away with watching so many Non-Arsenal games each season felt confident chasing in on a chip on. It was one of those occasions where you had two terrific sides in terrific form. You wondered what would ultimately separate them.

And for a while it was great. United scored but that didn't really matter because Madrid still had to get one and we wondered how it would all play out.

And then the referee intervened: it was clearly a complete accident and to those who say it is reckless to control the ball at that height, I'd remind you that we' re about to cast in bronze a statue of Dennis Bergkamp doing exactly that.

But for me the point is the referee never had to make that decision: no fan, player or manager of Real Madrid would have cited a failure to issue a red at that point as explanation for their failure to qualify. Just as nobody from Barcelona ever would have dared cite a failure to send-off RVP for kicking the ball away in Nou Camp a couple of years ago had we gone on to beat them.

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