Liverpool let a lead slip in Lisbon yesterday as we fell to a 2-1 defeat in Benfica in the first leg of the quarter final match of the Europa League. The sending off of Ryan Babel changed the complexion of the match with two second half penalties from Oscar Cardozo cancelled out Daniel Agger’s early opener, even so Rafa was happy enough with the result as he knows we’re only at the half way stage of the tie, as he explained:
‘It is half-time for us. We have one more game and we have to be confident we can progress.
‘The performance was good as we played for 60 minutes with 10 players. I am disappointed because we had some chances and could have done better.
‘We knew Benfica are a good team with quality and pace and they were dangerous.
‘To concede two goals to two penalties and have one goal disallowed is disappointing, but still it is a good result.’
The away goal could prove the all important factor for us however the sending off of Babel is something that Rafa can’t understand? The Dutchman saw red for putting his hand to the face of Luisao, who had just committed a poor foul on Fernando Torres (who suffered rough treatment all evening), with the Reds Boss thinking that the Benfica defender’s own actions were worse and warranted something more, as he also explained:
‘I was surprised because a foul from behind is more serious for me. I would like to analyse the foul before. And after, when one player is shouting in front of the referee after he already has a yellow card.
‘It is a big difference when you kick a player from behind to a player touching another in the mouth.
‘It’s difficult to understand and impossible to change so we have to move forward and think about Anfield and our fans behind the team.
‘Always when decisions are made against your team, you don’t like it. But you cannot change it and the only way now is to try to be positive and think about our fans behind the team and playing with 12 men at Anfield.’
Babel knows you can’t put your hands to an opponents face and doing this right in front of the referee isn’t going to help however it was still a soft dismissal and a red card should most probably also have been shown to the Benfica player as well.
Some might have found the decision to take off both Stevie Gerrard and Fernando before the end of the match surprising but with some very important matches coming up no chances, with two players that will be key players in these matches and were tired, could be taken. Leaving players on when they are tiring is when more injuries can be picked up. We might have lost the away leg but we’re still very much in this tie and with that away goal secured it gives us a very good chance at Anfield in the second leg.
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