You gotta love this forum. Comment on a match and you'll get 3 idiots replying "oh, you are from Italy blah blah" and the usual German Nazi berating and insulting you.
Before 2022 at the World Cup, in the knockout phase:
- had lost in the round of 16 only once, in 2006 to eventual cup winner Italy;
- had lost in the quarterfinals only once, in 1994 to eventual cup winner Brazil;
- had lost in the semifinal only once, in 1998 to eventual cup winner France.
so far have lost only one final, (obviously to the cup winner).
Anyone that can show one case of an equal incident in the modern era when it was not given a penalty?
I think a VAR suggesting a review for this would probably be never called for international duty again.
So, for the 5th Games in a row, a lot of mess during the Olympic cycle, and then at worst only a few unlucky people will miss out. Russians will, rightfully at this point, laugh their ass off at these "sanctions".
It's been clear for months that this is the only way for Russians to come back to international competitions soon. Otherwise they'll likely wait for years.