26 CMRDEN Larrionda

A must win game for both. Cameroon went ahead, then fell behind and ultimately and out of the tournament with a loss; Denmark saved themselves, and set up another must-win game against Japan.

A man well-versed in big FIFA matches was the referee, Jorge Larrionda from Uruguay. There is actually very little to say about his performance in a fair match - he might have issued a card for a stamp foul at 9' but sensibly chose not to, and when the game became more stretched he issued cards towards the end. Solid.

Some potential issues, all of these situations, as it happened, involved Nicklas Bendtner - was he not fouled at 42' (penalty?) and 43' (DOGSO?), and when Larrionda did penalise Stéphane Bassong at 49' for a holding foul on the Denmark attacker, what arguments really are there against a red card. I don't blame the Uruguayan referee for going yellow at 49' - red would have shocked everyone - but I am not really convinced personally.

A game that Jorge Larrionda had to navigate and did; in the bigger picture, no issues.

An onside played by Pablo Fandiño at 71' was harder than the still frame would have you believe; Mauricio Espinosa made a clear important mistake at 7' (- 0,2), even given the position of the players it was relatively tricky for an otherwise fairly blatant offside. 

Jorge Larrionda - 8,3 Pablo Fandiño - 8,4 Mauricio Espinosa - 8,2  Peter O'Leary Brent Best URU – NZL	Cameroon 1-2 Denmark Group Stage 19 June
Bassong (49') - SPA (Holding) Mbia (75') - Tackle	Sørensen (86') - Delaying the Restart Kjær (89') - SPA (Impeding)