After the season we have had, it has almost become second nature to highlight the contribution of the referee to every disappointing result we have had. To fans of other clubs or even to fellow Liverpool fans who have not watched all of our games in full, it sounds like a petty whine but even taking into account my red-tinted view, being as objective as I can, I firmly believe that the number borderline and downright wrong decisions that have gone against us this season, significantly outweigh the number that have gone for us.
To win a competition, you need more decisions to go for you than not. For example, take the last minute penalty awarded to Reading against us in the FA Cup. Had the referee not given that decision, we would have progressed to the next round; instead we went out.
Last night, Benfica became the latest beneficiaries of a refereeing performance than favoured our opponents more than us. To have a goal disallowed, a man sent off and two penalties given against you in a tricky European away tie sounds harsh but they were merely highlights of 90+ minutes in which the 6 officials completely buckled under the intimidation of the vociferous home crowd who seemed more interested in throwing smoke bombs and fireworks at the goal-line assistant than watching a game of football. As a result, the Swedish referee allowed Torres and co to be beaten to a pulp by a team that seems to have modelled its approach on that of Blackburn or Stoke.
Of the key decisions in the game my views were:
The disallowed goal should have stood. Excuse my lack of clarity on this but I watched the game in a noisy pub on a blurry screen so I often couldn’t tell players apart. I think it was Lucas who was given off-side but replays seemed to show that if he was, it was by a nose – his feet were certainly in line – and it was at best marginal. However, it was clear that he did not interfere with play as he never had any chance of reaching the free-kick which went directly to the keeper who punched the ball away to the edge of the area from where Torres lashed it home.
Babel can have no complaints for being sent off. He is stupid, arrogant and rash and as soon as he put his hands to Luisao’s face, he was running the risk of being red-carded. I believe the rules define violent conduct as using “excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball” and it would be ridiculous to suggest Babel’s petty groping of Luisao‘s face amounted to excessive force. Under the rules it is an offence to “strike or attempt to strike an opponent”. Again I can’t see how anyone can define Babel’s actions as striking an opponent. However, I think rightly ot wrongly most referee’s would take the view that making any contact with another player’s face amounts to a sending off. Where I thought the referee was in error was in his failure to deal with Luisao. In Babel’s defence, Luisao is massive and I know from personal experience, when someone like that comes at you in such an aggressive manner your nature instinct is to reach out your arm to keep them at bay and even to shove them back. It’s a natural protective response. I thought Luisao should have been at least booked for his antics and given the bad foul he had committed on Torres at the start of the incident which was also worthy of at least a yellow if not a straight red, he should have been off as well.
Regarding the first penalty, I would like to see it again but my thoughts were that it was correctly awarded but it was cynically won by Aimar. To me, Insua’s reaction to the ball cannoning back of the post was rash and panicked. In a split second, Aimar positioned his body in such a way that he could throw himself over Insua’s leg and give the referee a decision to make. I’d say it was a 50/50 in terms of whether most refs would give a penalty but without having seen decent replays of the incident I’d have to say it was the right decision and the spot-kick that followed was unsaveable.
Regarding the second penalty, I would have to say there is no way that was the correct decision. Clearly the ball strikes Carragher’s arm but that is the very point, the ball struck Carra’s arm, not the other way round. The rules state:
“A direct free kick is awarded if a player deliberately handles the ball’ and conversely a penalty if the offence occurs within the penalty area. Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with his hand or arm. FIFA guidance adds that the referee should take the following into consideration when deciding on deliberateness: (1) The deliberate movement of the hand towards the ball (2) The distance between the opponent and the ball (3) The position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement.”
There is no way anyone can say that Carragher deliberately handled the ball. It was booted at him, unexpectedly from less than a yard away when he was already off-balance and unable to adjust his body position. There was no way he could move his arm out the way of the ball once it was hit. The fact the arm was raised before the ball was struck is clearly not a factor according to FIFA’s guidance above.
It was a bad decision given by the goal-line assistant who was probably trying to justify his role by doing something other than act as a target for the home fans’ missiles. If that was correctly awarded then we should easily have had about ten penalties for the same offence this season.
Overall, I feel very hard done by. We deserved to at least emerge undefeated from this tie but too much went against us. I can only hope we have a referee at Anfield who favours the home side as much as this Swedish berk did. Meanwhile, Luisao will get some reception from our supporters after his antics.
I believe Insua and Babel will both miss the second leg. Assuming Aurelio is still injured, Rafa’s only real option is to switch Carra to left-back and bring Kyrgiakos in to partner Agger. Meanwhile, I expect Yossi will come in for Babel on the left.
A 2-1 defeat in the first leg of a European tie away from home is never a bad result. We have the away goal and can easily pull back a one-goal deficit at Anfield. Really, we want to blitz them as we did to Real last year and really put the bastards in their place. They weren’t good as a football side. They were just a bunch of thugs and cheats who got the rub of the green from a shit referee.
Bring on the second leg, but first let’s go to Birmingham and come back with three points.
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