Huge notch for Czech female footballers! After a referee’s mistake, they lost their chance to advance to the World Cup

The Czech women’s football team lost an important match against Iceland in the qualification for the 2023 World Cup. The 0:1 defeat means the end of their hopes for qualification. However, a number of controversial events took place during the match, leaving questions as to whether it was a justified defeat.

From the point of view of the Czech women’s football team, this was a very important qualifying match. If they won, they could have nurtured their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup. Unfortunately, the match ended with a negative result of 0::1.

Iceland’s only goal came in the 36th minute. It was scored by Gunnhildur Jónsdóttir. However, according to the replays, it was clearly scored after a handball. However, Scottish referee Lorraine Watson conceded the goal. The judge’s verdict was very harsh for the Czech players.

Another huge blow came in injury time when the Czech team managed to equalise. Simona Necidova got the ball in the net, but referee Watson disallowed the goal due to an alleged foul on the Icelandic player.

However, from the replays the spectators could see that it was a foul on the Czech player. It was therefore a second harsh blow from the referee towards the Czech players. After these two mistakes by the referee, the dream of advancing to the World Cup came to an end.

The Czech women footballers had plenty of opportunities during the match to equalise and possibly turn the match around, but they failed to convert any of their opportunities. Except for one, which was eventually disallowed.

“I have no explanation for that. I don’t know why the referee made this decision. It’s a shame. I don’t know if it was a regulation goal or not. But if we had managed to score it, we could have at least made some kind of a turnaround. Unfortunately,” captain Petra Bertholdová told ČT Sport after the match.

The Czechs had their chances, but the match was also affected by two wrong decisions from the referee. Who knows how the match would have turned out if VAR had been available and both situations could have been reviewed on video. Perhaps the Czech national team would have been happy with the win. Unfortunately, this remains in the realm of theory.

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