Referee Ratings: Netherlands v Denmark, Germany v Portugal, England v France, Spain v Italy

I haven't gotten to watch any of the games live. I've watched all of them via DVR. So far I haven't been impressed with the refereeing.

Damir Skomina (Slovenia) had Netherlands-Denmark. Coming several days after I watched the game I can't remember all of my exact complaints, but I do remember being less than impressed. I didn't feel he was up to the level of the game. He called some pretty innocuous challenges fouls. He did it fairly consistently, but I felt he interposed himself more than he needed to and the game didn't flow very well because of it. One incident I do remember was a challenge by a Dutch striker on the Danish keeper. The keeper did not have control of the ball and it wasn't even close to his body. The striker made a fair challenge for the ball, got it, and was called for a foul. It was quite ridiculous. I'm all for protecting goalkeepers, but the challenge was fair and measured. It wasn't even close to being a foul. He did do well and was well positioned for all the hand-ball appeals. None of them should have been penalties and Skomina got them all correct. He was well placed and that gave his denials credibility even though they were all pretty clearly not penalties. His assistants were good.
Rating: Average-to-above-average. 6.5/10.

Stéphane Lannoy (France) did Germany-Portugal and I thought he was just okay. His assistants were pretty good. Again a referee who inserted himself too much into the match. For portions of the match I couldn't tell what would be a foul and what wouldn't and it seemed like the players didn't know either. He got in the way a few times, but seemed to be fairly well positioned most of the time. He missed Meireles' punch on Badstuber, but I think that was more good positioning by Meireles to hide his cheating than poor positioning by Lannoy or his assistant.
Rating: Average. 5/10.

After lack-luster refereeing performances I was hopeful when I saw an Italian, Nicola Rizzoli, was assigned the England-France game. I was disappointed. Rizzoli did okay, but he wasn't the breath of fresh air I was hoping for. Again it was hard to figure out what would be allowed as fair contact and what would be a foul. He did better than his colleagues with it, but that's not saying much. He did keep the game under control without going to his pocket too much, but then I thought a couple French players should have been booked in addition to the English players who were. Specifically Ribery hacked down a few English players and at least one "tackle" wasn't even called a foul. The most baffling decision for me was Rizzoli's wave-off of the foul on Gerrard at the top of the French penalty area. It looked like a clear foul on first viewing and replays just confirmed my initial reaction. Overall I thought Rizzoli did well in managing the game and letting it flow. However I thought he got some moderate (not major) decisions wrong. The Gerrard and Ribery non-calls being the chief examples.
Rating: Above average. 7/10.

Viktor Kassai of Hungary did Spain-Italy. Looking back I wasn't terribly impressed with him during the 2012 World Cup and this game didn't change my opinion. The first half Kassai just let everything go. I know I railed about referees getting too involved, but Kassai let a lot go and it showed. Tackles were flying in and players were taking revenge, but if anything happened it was just a foul called. No cards even for some pretty cynical fouls from behind. On top of that, his foul recognition was hard to read (anyone else see a pattern?). The second half was a little better. I still don't understand why Torres was booked when there were 4-5 tackles that could've been cards to that point in the half. His arm was up but it looked like a normal position with nothing premeditated. This is especially weird when Bonucci only received a yellow for his horrendous tackle on Iniesta when Kassai seemed well placed to see exactly what happened. Rating: Average. 6/10.