English Integrity Takes A Dive With Stevie G
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Gerrard comes to the rescue (again) with a late penalty at Anfield
CLASH ... Gerrard goes down easily...
Steven Gerrard admitted Liverpool were lucky to salvage a Champions League point with a dubious penalty deep into injury time at Anfield last night.
Liverpool drew 1-1 with Atletico Madrid in Group D but were trailing to Maxi Rodriguez's 38th-minute strike when Swedish referee Martin Hansson pointed to the spot after a collision between Gerrard and defender Mariano Pernia.
The skipper held his nerve to score from the spot and keep Rafa Benitez's side on course for the knockout stages.
On a night Chelsea suffered a shock 3-1 defeat at Roma in Group A, Gerrard said: 'I'm not sure if it was a penalty. I got there first and I think it would have been a free-kick if it had been outside the area. But if it had been given at our end, we would have been livid.'
The Liverpool manager said: 'That is five or six times we have turned things round late on this season and that shows the character of the side. But I am disappointed at having to depend on a last-minute penalty for a point, because we should have had the game won long before that.
'I don't know for sure whether it was a penalty, but I do know there was a clear handball in the area earlier in the second half, so maybe it evened things out.
'We shouldn't be talking about the rights and wrongs of a penalty because we had so many chances to have won. But you have to convert them, or you will pay the price. That is especially true in the Champions League, but at least Atletico and ourselves are in a fantastic position to progress.'
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at least he admits it.
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Originally posted by dragg:
at least he admits it.
Everyone else had no doubt about it at all so how could he still deny it? Even Kenny Dalglish in an interview with sky sports Richard Keys looked embarrass saying it was a soft penalty and the rest of the guys just laugh at his comment...This was an important match and Gerrard got desperate and played for it going down theatrically... Anyway, Gerrard is also one of those known to "dived" for penalties isn't he?
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not the first time gerrard dived for a penalty lor
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Ref 'not sure' of Reds decision
Fifa referee Martin Hansson has declared he is not sure that the controversial last-gasp penalty he awarded to Liverpool against Atletico Madrid should have been given.
Steven Gerrard bumped into Mariano Pernia during the Champions League clash at Anfield and Hansson generously pointed to the spot in injury time.
The Reds captain took responsibility and cancelled out Maxi Rodriguez’s opener in the 95th minute, while Atleti's players could not believe their eyes.
Hansson has commented on his decision, and confirmed he was not sure of himself when he whistled for penalty.
“I am not sure it was a penalty,” Hansson told Swedish TV station SVT.
“From my angle, I am not sure this was a penalty.
“I am not supposed to comment on concrete plays according to Uefa.”
For his part, Pernia revealed the linesman apologised for taking the decision.
“The linesman told me ‘sorry, sorry’. This fault did not exist, Gerrard jumped on me. It is crystal clear, I do not have anything to add.”
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this video says it all.. ---> the hypocrite
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Sad,another diver.
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it's good to dive at times, at least we got entertainment.
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English Integrity Takes A Dive With Stevie G
One small step for Liverpool required one giant leap from captain Steven Gerrard in the 94th minute at Anfield. Has diving now become a bigger problem in England than anywhere else?
Gerrard : created a goal from the resulting penalty in the infamous comeback of the 2005 Champions League final.
Without going as far as to attribute the origin or most accepted practice of diving to any single nation in particular, it suffices to say it has long been a problem in football largely associated with the Latin countries more than any other.
Italy, Spain, Portugal and many of the South American nations are amongst those most often accused of play-acting, while moving slightly across Europe, even Germany have been accused of introducing the art of feigning injury to the world of football.
Labelled talentless on the pitch and hooligans off though they may have been, one thing that has always remained a point of pride for the British is their honest play on the pitch - but times are changing. These days, players such as Joe Cole and Rio Ferdinand have a touch of continental class about them; English fans' behaviour, though a far stretch from impeccable, has improved; but it is on the pitch where many Brits are now attracting attention for all the wrong reasons.
For so long there has been the rhetoric that the 'foreign' element of diving must be stamped out of the game by any means necessary, up to and including retroactive suspensions for players caught conning the officials who were not punished during the game.
The holier-than-thou attitude taken towards diving in the British media has been echoed by the managers, who have rarely been afraid to accuse players from opposing teams of theatrics but, no matter how blatant, would never dare acknowledge one of their own to have cheated in order to gain undue advantage during the course of a game.
What really sets Britain and most notably England apart, though, is when players themselves begin pointing the finger at each other. This brings us to last night's star of the show, Steven Gerrard.
The Liverpool skipper and England favourite has been one of the only high-profile players to consistently oppose to diving in the media. Most follow the etiquette of not criticising their fellow professionals, but Gerrard went as far as to name Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho and Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United as players who are "ruining football". The fact the two of them were teammates for a Portugal side that had eliminated England from the World Cup did little to cloud his judgement, of course.
This was without question the 28-year-old's most vitriolic and famous condemnation of diving and play-acting, but far from the only one, which makes his own conduct on the pitch that much more cringe-worthy.
Last night presented Steven Gerrard at his desperate best: hurling himself into the air and to the floor in the dying minutes at Anfield to win a penalty, which he duly converted, to scrape his side a draw against Atletico Madrid. But wait - there's more.
In the infamous comeback of the 2005 Champions League final, a tug of the sleeve that would not have caused you nor I to even break stride managed to bring the all-action midfielder to his knees with the consummate ease of a foreigner; and though the resulting penalty was saved, it created a goal from the rebound and set Liverpool on their way to an historic victory.
The list goes on - a Stevie special a couple of seasons ago against Bolton Wanderers that would have sent Cristiano Ronaldo himself into a shame spiral went completely ignored - and what makes it that much more reprehensible in the case of Gerrard is that the only thing he has failed to fall off as yet is his high horse.
He is very much representative of the hypocritical state in which English football currently finds itself. Deco, Filippo Inzaghi, Guti and Robinho may or may not kiss the grass more often than Gerrard, but when they rise to their feet and reflect on a con-job well done, they will not then go and condemn others through the media for doing exactly the same thing.
Failure to acknowledge the problem would be one thing, and the culture of encouragement to win by any means necessary that began on the continent is not in the pure spirit of the game, but the hypocrisy of condemning others for their misconduct while actively engaging in the same pathetic practice borders on political farce and leaves England with even less integrity than their continental counterparts.
But do they care? Gerrard graciously admitted yesterday's incident "might not" have been a penalty, but of course nobody has yet dared to pose him the question of whether he dived or not. His manager Rafael Benitez went one better and said, with the straightest of round faces, it was a penalty and that the Reds deserved to have had one awarded prior to that.
An enraged Atleti are also claiming they were denied a penalty and there are in fact cries of conspiracy echoing throughout the Spanish media. Mariano Pernia - who committed the 'foul' - has gone as far as to claim live on Radio Marca that the linesman who awarded the penalty apologised afterwards upon realising his decision was incorrect.
The hilarity hit an ultimate high, however, when ex-Liverpool and Republic of Ireland defender Phil Babb at first seemed to acknowledge the dive, but then claimed it was merely testament to Gerrard's commitment to the cause of pulling his side level, which of course made it a perfectly reasonable and acceptable thing to do.
Marca described the penalty award as "completely the wrong decision." The paper believes many agree that "it appears that they do not want us to qualify for the next round."
The fact that Jamie Carragher and Javier Mascherano could have had penalties awarded against them for handball added to the sense of disillusionment, while the paper dismissed Luis Perea's handball as not as serious.
Atlético's indignation was not as strong as Marca's appeared to be as they pointed the finger once again against Uefa president Michel Platini with the front page headline: "Another Robbery By Platini."
A small matter of €300,000 for the win was also raised, but it was the late penalty and the subsequent four bookings, for Pernía, Perea, John Heitinga and Sergio Agüero, that has caused the disbelief.