MOSCOW, June 27: Russian referee Valentin Ivanov said the stormy World Cup match between Portugal and Netherlands was the most difficult of his professional career. Ivanov has been under fire for his performance in Sunday's second-round clash, won 1-0 by Portugal, which saw a World Cup record four red cards shown.

“Probably, from the point of view of rudeness, it was the worst match I ever had,” the 45-year-old referee was quoted as saying by Russian daily Izvestia on Tuesday.

Both teams finished the bad-tempered encounter with nine men while eight others were cautioned.

Ivanov was heavily criticised by players, coaches and even FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who had said the referee could have given a yellow card to himself.

“I consider that the referee was not at the same level as the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee,” Blatter told Portuguese television.

But Ivanov, who will end his international career this year because of FIFA's imposed age limit of 45, defended himself.

Asked if he thought he had made any mistakes, he said: “I don't know. I haven't seen the video yet but I called the action as I saw it.”

Ivanov said he was taken by surprise by the rough tactics of Dutch players.

“You would expect some dirty tricks from the Portuguese.

They are known for time-wasting or hitting from behind,” he said. “But I was unpleasantly surprised by seeing such things from the Dutch. More so, they were the instigators.”—Reuters