France successfully dispatch the penalty kick and the score is 1 - 0.
In the 19' minute Faghani whistles for a foul and points to the penalty spot ...
And when the YC was shown, I thought the Referee's decision was a penalty kick for DOGSO.
However, it becomes apparent that Faghani has awarded a direct free kick outside the penalty area and not, as many people initially believed, a penalty. The Referee is pointing to a spot outside the penalty area. To avoid any misunderstanding he should perhaps not use this pointing signal (which is exactly the same as the signal for pointing to the penalty spot, which he used 8 minutes earlier) or otherwise use another signal to indicate the location.
Now, this leads on to the consideration whether this was a DOGSO incident ...
The France attacker Kylian Mbappé controls the ball and is then tripped by Nicolas Tagliafico, who is the second-last defender. This therefore meets the criteria for DOGSO. Faghani's AR did well to tell the Referee that the foul was outside the penalty area, however could the AR also have given his recommendation for DOGSO? If the unfair challenge by the second-last defender was outside the penalty area, then it should have been a RC to Tagliafico and a direct free kick to France.
Furthermore, with VAR used for "clear and obvious mistakes" (specifically with Red Card incidents being one of the four main uses) why did the Referee not use (or hear recommendations from) the VAR?
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