Thirty-five years old, referee for over 150 appearances in Ligue 1, Francois Letexier – chosen by UEFA for Denmark-Serbia – made a good debut at Euro2024 in Croatia-Albania and is considered among the best European referees. In the 2023/24 Champions League he took charge of a total of 6 matches. Starting from the preliminary phase of the competition, where he covered the match between Antwerp and AEK Athens, he subsequently refereed three matches in the group phase, including Napoli’s defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu against the 14-time European champions Real Madrid. In the round of 16 he directed the first leg match between Lazio and Bayern Munich at the Olympic stadium in Rome, won by the white and blue team. To conclude, he was assigned the first leg of the quarter-final between Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid and reigning champions Manchester City, which ended 3-3. The French referee was also the match director of Roma-Brighton in the Europa League and of this year’s European Super Cup played in August by Manchester City and Sevilla and won on penalties by the English as well as return of the Europa League between Atalanta and Liverpool but how did he fare yesterday?
Letexier’s history with Denmark and Serbia
Two precedents with the Danish national team with a balance of two drawsonly one with Serbia who lost on the occasion.
The referee cautioned four players
Assisted by assistants Mugnier and Rahmouni with the Lithuanian Rumsas IV man and the German Dankert al Varthe referee cautioned four players: Milenkovic (S), Wind (D), Hjulmand (D), Mitrovic (S)
Denmark-Serbia, the slow-motion cases
These are the dubious episodes. After just 2′ Milenković immediately received a yellow for a hold on Hojlund. Denmark scores in the 23rd minute: Eriksen takes the corner and the ball ends up in the net, but the referee whistles for Wind’s foul on Rajkovic. In the 26th minute Wind was given a yellow card for a stomp on Pavlovic. In the 29th minute Hjulmand was booked for a slip on Ilic. Also in the 53rd minute Serbia scores but this time it doesn’t count either: Tadic serves Mitrovic deep who first sees the shot blocked by Schmeichel, then tries to reiterate it into the net with Andersen who deflects it into his goal. Everything was stopped due to Mitrovic’s initial offside who was also booked in the 83rd minute. If one of those two disallowed goals had been validated, the entire group standings would have changed. Denmark-Serbia ends 0-0.
