Pedro Henriques backs the officials in Omonia Benfica

Pedro Henriques gave a strong defence of the officials in Benfica's 4-1 win over Omonia Nicosia in Omonia Nicosia vs Benfica. The refereeing analyst praised the assistants for their offside work and said the referee handled the areas and discipline well, with Jasper Vergoote scoring a 7 in his assessment.

The calls Henriques highlighted

Speaking to A Bola in comments translated from Portuguese, Henriques said: "Excellent assistants in terms of offside. In the areas and in discipline, the referee always decided well."

He pointed first to Benfica's opening goal at 14 minutes, saying there was no offside and that Manu's pass to Fredrik Aursnes was legal. He also backed the referee's decision not to award a penalty at 73 minutes, saying João Palhinha clearly touched the ball before the later contact.

The assistant referees' role

The scale of the offside work mattered because Benfica scored four times in the match, while Omonia Nicosia got one. Henriques said the assistant referees were involved in offside calls across at least three of the five goals, which is why the review leaned so heavily on their positioning.

Aursnes and Vangelis Pavlidis both received 8.2 ratings, while Palhinha was rated 6.54. Those figures fit a game with enough attacking quality and enough close calls for the officiating to come under close inspection, but Henriques' verdict was that the key decisions held up.

Benfica leave Cyprus with the result intact and the referee review settled in Henriques' favour, with Vergoote's 7 and the 14-minute offside check the main reference points from the night.