Born in Carei, Romania, on 16 September 1984, Istvan Kovacs – chosen for Slovenia-Serbia – made his debut in the top flight in 2007 and became a FIFA referee in 2010. This season Kovács took charge of 14 matches in the Romanian SuperLiga, two in the following “Play-off Championship” and as many matches of the “relegation group”, for a total of 18 championship matches. Eight Champions League matches including AC Milan’s home defeat against the Germans Borussia Dortmund, and two matches in the final stages, the round of 16 match between Inter and the Spanish side Atlético Madrid and the return match of the quarter-finals, which saw Paris Saint German advance to the next round against Barcelona. In Europe he also directed the final won by Atalanta over Bayer Leverkusen and in the Conference in the 2021/22 season he was the referee who directed the first historic final of the competition won by Roma against the Dutch Feyenoord thanks to Nicolò Zaniolo’s goal but let’s see how he fared yesterday.
Kovacs’ history with Slovenia and Serbia
Three the precedents with Slovenia (2 wins and one defeat), none with Serbia whose Under 19 team he managed only once
The referee cautioned 5 players
Assisted by assistants Marinescu and Artene with the Norwegian Eskas IV man and the Dutch van Boekel at the Var, the referee cautioned five players. Mladenovic, Lukic, Janza, Jovic and Vipotnik.
Slovenia-Serbia, slow motion cases
These are the dubious episodes. In the 25th minute, the first yellow card of the match: Filip Mladenović was booked for a hard sliding tackle on Karnicnik. In the 54th minute Lukic was booked for an obstruction foul on Stojanovic in mid-field. Third yellow in the 87th minute for Janza and in the 92nd minute J was also bookedovic who had only come on in the 64th minute and had only stood out in practice for this foul and for the fact that when he replaced Vlahovic after just three minutes Slovenia scored the opening goal, but then it was the AC Milan striker himself who scored the equalizer in the last minute of injury time, after the last yellow card for Vipotinik in the 95th minute for hitting Serbian goalkeeper Rajkovic. The two goals were regular, the referee’s direction was good. Slovenia-Serbia ends 1-1.
