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

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.

I agree with you. He didn't back down and go into a shell, he kept getting up and kept on going for the team and it really helped thwart their defensive plan.

On an ideal day, his effort and mentality would of been rewarded with more cards for the opposition but the ref wasn't to be budged.

Stupidity cost us the game plain and simple.

defence needs to tighten up but apart from that i diddnt see anything to fear. Di maria has been listening to the press to much if thinks hes better than the is. Does anyone else think he looks like plug from the cash street kids ? Maby the comic book life wasnt workin out :-)

I am seething after that and I'm gonna make sure every one of those Benfica players are deafened by my roar next week.

I hope I am not walking alone.

YNWA ill be there loud as usual

You need to make a request to uefa to repeat the game because the ref showed two yellow cards to Luisão but no red card

luisao_0002.wmv

here you have the video , the first yellow was the one from the fault and the second from the incident with babel

The mere fact that the tosspot of a ref let the game continue and did nothing in response to the flares etc bombarding the pitch shows that he was not qualified to carryout the job he was supposed to.

You need to make a request to uefa to repeat the game because the ref showed two yellow cards to Luisão but no red card

luisao_0002.wmv

here you have the video , the first yellow was the one from the fault and the second from the incident with babel

The guys from Sporting (Alvalade) are the most fans against Benfica!! They don't win nothing and don't want that others win too... In portuguese it's called "AZIA"....

The ref said that we showed 2 yellow cards to Luisao because he didn't noticed that already had showed it before...


@Alvalade es um aziado de primeira! Temos pena, o jogo nao vai ser repetido e voces nem a cheiram!! Beijos à prima!

So is your job to demand uefa the repetition of the game . About the flare , those things only happen because benfica supporters (lampiões) are animals

The guys from Sporting (Alvalade) are the most fans against Benfica!! They don't win nothing and don't want that others win too... In portuguese it's called "AZIA"....

The ref said that we showed 2 yellow cards to Luisao because he didn't noticed that already had showed it before...


@Alvalade es um aziado de primeira! Temos pena, o jogo nao vai ser repetido e voces nem a cheiram!! Beijos à prima!

Desculpa , mas sou um cavalheiro e recuso-me a falar com animais   (I'm sorry but I'm a gentleman and I refuse to talk to animals)

Now that i see it again, Luisão put his finger in Babel's face which is why Babel raised his hand. Which means if there was a red card it should have been for the both of them.

I think the ref wanted to get home alive after seeing the angry crowd which is why he sided with them all night.

You need to make a request to uefa to repeat the game because the ref showed two yellow cards to Luisão but no red card

luisao_0002.wmv

here you have the video , the first yellow was the one from the fault and the second from the incident with babel

Unfortunately we'll get F**k-all from Uefa, we'll just give them a beating in the second-leg. It was from that moment onwards that the ref seemed to lose the plot.

How the ref didn't see Luisao's reactions towards Babel as anything other than violent is beyond me! Not arsed about the fans and firecrackers, funny watching the official on the goal line shitting himself though, especially as Reina just carried on as if F**k-all was happening.

Can't wait for the backlash next Thursday. Hopefully the Reds will come out attacking with a vengeance!

@Alvalade es um aziado de primeira! Temos pena, o jogo nao vai ser repetido e voces nem a cheiram!! Beijos à prima!

Desculpa , mas sou um cavalheiro e recuso-me a falar com animais   (I'm sorry but I'm a gentleman and I refuse to talk to animals)

Don't know if you 2 are aware or not but this is a Liverpool Football Club forum so keep it in English, if you wish to talk to each other in another language keep it via PM or on another forum.

Don't know if you 2 are aware or not but this is a Liverpool Football Club forum so keep it in English, if you wish to talk to each other in another language keep it via PM or on another forum.

i translated what i've said and i'm not going to talk with it anymore

No player should have to walk off the pitch for touching a players face in the manner Babel did. Especially after seeing a foul beforehand where a player was blatantly kicked up into the air. Luisao kicked through Torres' standing foot, was then up in the face of the official, was touched, manhandled the ref out the way and slapped away the hand with much more aggression than Babel. It was farsical.

As for the penalty decisions. Honestly, in the stark light of day they were 50-50s. You see them given, you see them not given. We had no chance with that set of officials. They were itching to give them under pressure. The fifth official gave one to placate the throw of fireworks and the ref gave one to bow to the atmosphere.

Second half got ridiculous, the amount of diving, niggling, lack of second yellows for Benfica players.

Can't wait till second leg. Anfield will be bouncing, and we're going to skull F**k them.

and we're going to skull F**k them.

I F***ing love it!!

I thought they got both of the penalties right, but the Babel decision, if that was a Red it should have been red for Luisao as well. The offsides call was horrid as well. He was definitely not interfering. Still, Torres had the golden chance to level it and missed, and he will not miss with the Kop cheering him on. YNWA!

I thought they got both of the penalties right, but the Babel decision, if that was a Red it should have been red for Luisao as well. The offsides call was horrid as well. He was definitely not interfering. Still, Torres had the golden chance to level it and missed, and he will not miss with the Kop cheering him on. YNWA!

Thought Nando was unlucky myself, he just caught the ball all wrong, was trying to lift over the keeper and miss-hit his shot.

Hate to say it but I think Rafa has to take the skippers armband off Gerrard and hand it to Carra , Stevie seems to have his mind on other things ie South Africa , altho he lets his feet do the talking he needs to show more responsibility when others around him are in danger of losing their heads, he should have been berating Danny Agger last nite for constantly bleating to the ref even if most of it was justified we could easily have ended with nine men and been out of the tie .

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.

The result was not a f**king fair one!! What are you f**king on about?! We got a player sent off for a debatable card, while they did not get any sent off when they could easily have been down to 9.

If you think its childish, then call it that. Ill be as f**king childish as i want, and maybe in my childish tantrum ill throw a copy of 'FIFA Laws of the Game' at you, in which Ayrton has already brought up, strengthening our case.

Thought Nando was unlucky myself, he just caught the ball all wrong, was trying to lift over the keeper and miss-hit his shot.

He made a pigs ear of it - imagine N'Gog did the same, he'd have been slaughtered

Reading a post on here that thinks that was a fair result p****s me off ! the referee had a shocker of a game ,Luisao had no intention of getting that ball from Nando ,his sole purpose was to take Nando out!the red card changed the game ,the first penalty was farcical ! the second penalty ,yes . he handled the ball so i could admit to that one ,the 'fans' of Benfica throwing stuff onto the pitch ? if that was an English club there would be serious issues ......feel cheated !!

Ryan sorry for seeing red

2nd Apr 2010 - Latest News

Ryan Babel today apologised to his Liverpool teammates after seeing red during last night's Europa League clash with Benfica - but backed the Reds to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit next week.

Babel was dismissed by Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson after half an hour of the tie in Portugal after raising his hand in the direction of Benfica defender Luisao.

The Reds were leading at the time of the dismissal through Daniel Agger's early strike, but ultimately slipped to defeat after two second half penalties from Oscar Cardozo.

Babel believes the red card was a harsh penalty for his reaction to a terrible foul on Fernando Torres, which incensed the Liverpool players.

"The referee  told me the red card was for touching Luisao's face - that was it," said Babel. "It was clear that Luisao had made an awful foul and all I wanted to do was back up Fernando. Luisao came over all loud and in my face.

"All I wanted to do was try and back him off. I just told him not to come too close. But the referee still gives me a red card. But I did it.

"I think maybe it was a little bit too harsh. It might have been a stupid, silly thing for me to touch him in the face but I thought a yellow card would have been fair enough. But if they are the rules, what can I do? Luisao came too close to me. He was pushing and very loud, straight in my face but they (Benfica's players) made it bigger than it was."

He added: "I will learn from the mistake and it won't happen again. As a team, we were in control in the first 30 minutes and we had got our goal.

"For myself, I had felt good. I felt a bit unlucky with a couple of my early dribbles but I was confident that I could grow into the game.

"I have spoken to the lads and said sorry. But it is good and I felt they were behind me. They fought all the way and I am confident we can do well in the next game.

"I feel very guilty that we lost but a big complement to the team is that we were still comfortable with 10 men. Hopefully we will get the good result we need."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/ryan-sorry-for-seeing-red

Fair play Ryan, apologizes and shows understanding but also states his frustration of what we all know - it was a sh*t decision as a whole.

I think after the storm, with a clear head, the reulst wasn't bad under the circumstances. I've only read the last few posts and see there is some difference of opinion regarding the sending offs. I thought Luisao should deffo have been sent off for what was an awefull and deliberate tackle, and from behind. Just thougt the ref lost his nerve then. If he had done his job, the Babel incident wouldn't have occured. Even though, Babelk should have kept his hands to himself whatever the circumstances as every one is aware that the refs have no other option once you raise your hand, and make contact. The Carra penalty, just unfrortunate, the momentum of the tackle and the swinging arm, just one of those things, he obviously never intended to sat the ball away as he knew where he was, Just got unlucky. Still think we performed admirably with 10 men and with a similar tempo we should be capable of winning the second leg at ours. One post I  did read was criticising Gerrard, I did notice on a few occasions when he lost possesion, he doesn't RACE back to try and recover the situation, he seems to stroll back as if it's someone else's job. He needs to be less concerned of his image in those situations and give it his all. Insua as well seemed to give the ball away a bit cheaply at times, and he got rinsed on a couple of occasions too. Lets hope Aurelio is fit fot next week. Other wise a decent performance all things considered. If Nando had finished the one on one chance he had, there would be a lot more positive mood. And with 10 men as well. Chin up, we need to get ready for the brummies now.

Reff was awful but a reasonable performance considering how we have played lately