Video: Football referee misses blatant handball

It's easy to call out questionable referee decisions in football when you're watching on television.

A handball in a Women's World Cup match between Australia and Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, however, is so blatant that it's almost inexplicable how the Hungarian referee Gyoengyi Gaal missed it.

The Equatorial Guinean player Bruna actually catches the ball with her hands in the penalty box after an Australian shot hits the post. Bruna then casually drops it a few seconds later and play resumes, despite the Australian protests.

Australia still ended up winning the match 3-2, but it's disappointing that these sorts of wrong calls are made at the highest level, and that includes in the men's game (Frank Lampard's goal that wasn't awarded at last year's World Cup; referee Graham Poll booking a player three times before sending him off in 2006).

Gaal has since apologised to FIFA for the mistake, which also wasn't spotted by the linesperson. Perhaps not surprisingly, Gaal has not been selected to referee any of the quarter-final matches in the competition, though it's easy to forget that refereeing is a difficult task.

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Watch the Hungarian referee miss the blatant handball in the Women's World Cup below: