By John P
August 25 2005

Collina is at the centre of controversy as Villareal where let off with a goal which would have taken the game to extra time, this eventually killed off a resurgent and impressive Everton display.

A goal headed by Duncan Ferguson was disallowed for a foul, Collina blamed Bent for the incident, but video playback showed that there was very little contact to disallow a goal.

After the incident Everton tried to pick themselves up but eventually heads began to drop and where caught with a goal in injury time.

The attacking display was impressive from the away team as they performed a lot more positively then the first leg following the change from 4-5-1 to 4-1-3-2, with Neville, Cahill, Bent, Davies and even big Dunc himself proven themselves to be a handful for the spanish elite team in the 2nd half.

Collina mysteriously ruled out a Duncan Ferguson header that could have taken the qualifier into extra time. BBC website

Obviously the extra year Collina wanted in refeering has degraded this once highly respected referee, recently investigated by FIFA into a corruption scandal in Italy.

Full match report to follow

Villareal 2 - 1 Everton (4-2 on aggregate)