Benfica 2-1 Liverpool: In game and Post Match thread

What exactly are people complaining about? The result was a fair one, the red card was a fair one (babel should never have touched his face), the penalties were correct, the tackle by Luisao is given as a Yellow card so many times in England, why is it now all of a sudden a Red card offence? The ref got a few decisions wrong, but nothing that cost us a goal. Stop blaming the Ref. We were down to 10 men and we lost 2-1 to a very good team. All we need to do is beat them at home. If your complaining about the minority of Benfica fans then fair enough but don't say we were cheated out of the game, that's just unsportsman like and Childish.

Not the worst result for us. A 1-0 win at Anfield is enough for us to go trough. And the players didn't perform that bad, the goals were conceded from penalties, Babel was sent off (never a red card) and we had a goal disallowed.

The bad thing was Rafa's subs. We are 2-1 down and he subs Nando for N'gog, Gerrard for Yossi. If he wanted to get something from the game, more than a loss, those were bad decisions. If he didn't want to concede more goals, those were bad decisions. If we are 1-0 up, shouldn't the main objective be not to concede? And if we are losing, shouldn't we try to score? And I doubt that they were tired, they barely got the ball in the second half.

Thought some of the lads were immense. Mentions for Mascherano and Kuyt who I thought were excellent.

Haven't seen our disallowed goal, watched the rest of it, the red was very soft, he patted him on the face like loads of other players do. The other guy should have been off for a reckless challenge

What exactly are people complaining about? The result was a fair one, the red card was a fair one (babel should never have touched his face), the penalties were correct, the tackle by Luisao is given as a Yellow card so many times in England, why is it now all of a sudden a Red card offence? The ref got a few decisions wrong, but nothing that cost us a goal. Stop blaming the Ref. We were down to 10 men and we lost 2-1 to a very good team. All we need to do is beat them at home. If your complaining about the minority of Benfica fans then fair enough but don't say we were cheated out of the game, that's just unsportsman like and Childish.

It wasn't a red card offense because Babel and the other guy were pushing each other, Babel only touched his face. So if Babel got a red card, the other guy had to get a red card, too. And the guy that was fighting with Babel tripped Nando before that, that's why they started fighting. So he had to get a yellow for the foul and a yellow for bad behaviour and get sent off.

6 freakin seconds to take a goal kick and Pepe is booked...sometimes i despair at the human race...well Sweden anyway...oh and Belgium.....

I know!!! what is that about??!!
The ref was a bit card-happy!

If you close your eyes- and count to six seconds, thats:
1...2  Reina putting the ball down and making sure its how he wants it,
3...4  Walking backwards
4...6   Running & kicking

Whats the problem?
I have seen alot worse time wasting than that!!

You know that there player kicked the ball away from Reina so he had to fetch it?

Still 6 seconds though, pathetic

What exactly are people complaining about? The result was a fair one, the red card was a fair one (babel should never have touched his face), the penalties were correct, the tackle by Luisao is given as a Yellow card so many times in England, why is it now all of a sudden a Red card offence?

People are commenting on the referees' capability or to be more precise incapability to apply the written law of the game and make a relative decision on a consistent level none of which was achieved.
The penalties were correct but the decision to disallow Liverpools' goal was faulted as was the sending off of Babel because if the official had been on top of the game the only outcome of the barbarous studs up challenge was a red card and everyone of the commentators agreed on this point at least.
If he had interpreted the rules correctly or had been watching with a keener eye the red card would have been brandished before he confronted the player and Babel would have had no need to protest - these are salient and technically correct points I can only conclude that you have some kind of visual or mental impairment.

It wasn't a red card offense because Babel and the other guy were pushing each other, Babel only touched his face. So if Babel got a red card, the other guy had to get a red card, too. And the guy that was fighting with Babel tripped Nando before that, that's why they started fighting. So he had to get a yellow for the foul and a yellow for bad behaviour and get sent off.

I agree. And if someone are able to watch the incident again, you'll see that the Swedish ref actually awards Luisao a second yellow, WITHOUT showing him the red. 

Anyway as many have said 1-2 is not bad result, before the home game. Let's keep it positive!

I dont think the ref was giving Luisao a second yellow, simply the player wasnt paying attention the first time he waved it.

Anyway, the point is every single week you see players remonstrating with an opponent after the opponent commits a dirty foul on a team mate.  Often you see the guilty party get shoved, or pushed backwards in an aggressive manner, and rarely do you see more than a yellow card for even that.
Clearly the Brazilian was in babels face, and babels hand to the face was simply a "dont invade my personal space gesture"
How that could be interpreted as Violent conduct is beyond belief.
It was nothing more than handbags, and the red card was way out of proportion to the incident.

I would absolutely challenge the red card if I was in charge, because I believe it could easily be downgraded to yellow.

Another European game passed me by in a drunken haze, really can't remember much at all after the first goal

Best way to see it mate, I was pissed out out of me skull in 2005 so try and get in the same condition every time.

One other thing on the babel incident

The crowd often plays a part with their reaction and infuences the ref to believe something is more serious than it actually was .........I am sure this ref was suckered in by the crowd.

People are commenting on the referees' capability or to be more precise incapability to apply the written law of the game and make a relative decision on a consistent level none of which was achieved.
The penalties were correct but the decision to disallow Liverpools' goal was faulted as was the sending off of Babel because if the official had been on top of the game the only outcome of the barbarous studs up challenge was a red card and everyone of the commentators agreed on this point at least.
If he had interpreted the rules correctly or had been watching with a keener eye the red card would have been brandished before he confronted the player and Babel would have had no need to protest - these are salient and technically correct points I can only conclude that you have some kind of visual or mental impairment.

Kuyt was offside when Gerrard crossed the ball in so the decision was correct. I agree Luisao was a n*b for starting on Babel, but he should never have touched his face. He did it twice.

I guess Ryan Babel deserved that. I mean it was a soft sending off, nothing compared to deliberate kicks to the back of the leg but I remember Jeremie Aliadere got sent off against us for something similar.

Yer and Aliadiere going was harsh. Anyway he slapped Mash, he didn't just push him in the face. By the letter of the law, the referee had the right to send him off. But its just not sensible refereeing. He could quite easily have just talked to both players and calmed it down. And if he had I really don't think anybody would have mentioned it.

There are plenty of laws in football that make no sense. You can swear your F***ing heart out to a ref, (even flick the vs at the them!), but if you kick the ball away or throw it into the floor - yellow card straight away. You can kick somebody - and lets be serious thats what Luisao did, no intention of getting the ball - he got a yellow card. And I think by the letter of the law thats what you would have expected, not a red. But pushing somebody in the face - when they're remonstrating up in your face - red card? I just don't think they can be reconciled.

Got to agree with you completely, he did nothing. No classic Masch tackles or anything.

Have to disagree. v v harsh. He worked his arse off. When everybody else was just wandering around, tired because of playing 60 mins with 10 men he was still sprinting round. You watch everytime who was doubling up with the wing backs or who was chasing back because Gerrard was too knackered to. Masch everytime. With 10 men you need an absolute terrier and thats what he was.

What you seem to have forgotten is that he was a yellow away from a suspension. If he'd started diving in like he normally does, over 90 mins a yellow was a given. He did very well to restrain himself. And worked harder than anybody else on the pitch.

Kuyt was offside when Gerrard crossed the ball in so the decision was correct. I agree Luisao was a n*b for starting on Babel, but he should never have touched his face. He did it twice.

The situation is mate if the official had done his job to anywhere near a credible standard there would be a calm acceptance of a fair result but he failed miserably and a fair result is not what we were left to contemplate.
Like so many incidents in the game his initial judgement of the Babel episode was flawed and the ensuing decisions were as faulted, the official should have made an informed decision on the brutal challenge on Torres but because he either missed it or interpreted it wrongly the incident snowballed with an unfortunate sending off which was preventable and entirely due to the referee.
Kuyt didn't appear offside and there was no way in the world he was interfering with play.

How anyone can say Masch was poor yesterday is beyond me and then say Lucas overshadowed him is completely baffling. Masch was brilliant yesterday he chased down harried and consistently threw in challenges. His energy is phenomenal.

I tend to agree with Mark Wright last night who was commentating on the game on the channel I was watching. He said Masch was our man of the match, he said he was exceptional and his attitude was first rate. He kept Aimar on a tight lease and the reason they only way Benfica were getting through were on the flanks.

Lucas worked hard in fairness to him but thought he was again fairly ordinary last night, he gave the ball away a lot and was bypassed a lot  and I'm actually stunned that anyone voted for him as man of the match. His votes were obviously from people that have sympathy towards him for the criticism he receives rather than his performance.

Thanks for the +'s gents

Thought Gerrard looked uninterested again. Nowhere to be seen when Torres got hacked down and Babel got sent off. Whenever our players were losing it with the ref (understandably) it was Carra who settled things down. Gerrard was absent.

Disappointed with Torres. Yeah he got hacked down time after time, but he needs to get off the floor and hit them where it hurts with the goal. He had the chance to swing it back to 2-1 in our favour but missed a sitter.

Bit harsh on Stevie, i thought. Fought hard in midfield to win us the battle.

Torres i can understand because he should of scored two and sat on his arse abit but go back about 3 months and he wouldn't of gotten back up and kept sulking. Fair play to him for continuing through that mauling.

The rest i agree with.

I am not too dis-heartened by the result last night. I think that the whole Babel sending off was probably justified. My immediate thought when it seemed that Luisao had been sent off was that Babel would and probably should get sent-off aswell. However, the ref back-tracked on the Luisao decision. Anyway, i think the most important thing to take from the game is that we got an away goal and with 11 players on the pitch, we looked relativley comfortable. Also, with the fans behind the lads at Anfield next week, i am confident we will win. By the way, i want to congratulate the fans who were in Lisbon last night. You let the rest of Europe hears use. Brilliant support as ever  .

We showed that we are the better team imo. They must know that they really need to step up at anfield, two pens isn't going to happen again I would think. Get to anfield, all we need is a 1-0, peice of piss

Really hope it is a red hot atmosphere at Anfield next week, hope Rafa goes for them as well and sets out the team like he did against Sunderland.

Bit harsh on Stevie, I thought. Fought hard in midfield to win us the battle.

Torres I can understand because he should of scored two and sat on his arse abit but go back about 3 months and he wouldn't of gotten back up and kept sulking. Fair play to him for continuing through that mauling.

Other way round for me!
Sometimes I don't like it when Torres goes down easily. But here it was very intelligent. In the second half his hold up and free kicks were the only thing that got us out of our own half and took some of the pressure off. With Torres going down with the slightest touch from behind it meant Luisao and the curly haired lad were afraid to even touch him because they both had yellows. V v intelligent play for me. And one one-on-one miss hardly equates to a poor game.

Gerrard on the other hand looked tired. Didn't do anything wrong particularly, just wasn't terribly effective.