Jozo and stupid mistakes

Success in football often comes down to who doesn’t make mistakes at the back.  For all France’s pace on the break, it was their sheer solidity at the back which saw them through the World Cup.  England reached the semi-final, with little more than a mid-table select, but they made remarkably few mistakes, and just as importantly, understood the importance of set-pieces – don’t give them away and exploit them when you get them.

Viewed through the prism of an educational World Cup, Jozo Simunovic’s chest-high Alashkert was worthy of a red card on the basis of sheer stupidity.  It was an intolerable mistake, a relic of a former era.

That Uefa doubled his suspension to two game is no surprise.  Perhaps they have a stupidity threshold.