Referee chief backs decision to deny Scotland penalty v Hungary

“This was a very tough game with a couple of controversial incidents,” Rosetti said when asked about the Armstrong incident.

“There was one, for example, in minute 68 when there was a possible penalty because number seven of Scotland, John McGinn, was pulling the opponent’s shirt just before the incident. So, this was one of the possible penalties.

“Then there was of course in minute 79 in the penalty area of Hungary another incident. This was, let’s say, in favour of Hungary. The second one was in favour of Scotland when the attacker of Scotland – Armstrong – was in front of the Hungarian.

“If you watch it from behind the camera, there was a movement of the attacker towards the Hungarian. So, another controversial decision.”

Rosetti stressed that VAR “check everything”.

“There was no intervention because in their opinion the attacker changed the direction towards the defender and, in his opinion, it was just a physical contact to challenge the defender,” he said.

Asked whether Tello had been dropped as a referee for the knock-out stages, Rosetti declined to comment other than to say that some top-class officials always leave tournaments early.

Rosetti also described the decision to award a penalty and show a red card to Scotland centre-half Ryan Porteous in their opening defeat by Germany as “a good decision of the referee at the end, a very good intervention of the VAR”.