Benitez Against Crouch Dismissal

December 21, 2007

Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez was firm that Peter Crouch was forced into striking back against Mikel John Obi subsequent to the red card given to the English striker after a lunge at the Nigerian midfielder in Carling Cup quarter-final.

Benitez utterly believes that Crouch was provoked because Mikel tried kicking Crouch twice during the game, the second-half flash point coming just seconds after Frank Lampard had put Avram Grant’s Chelsea in front 59 minutes after the game started and referee Martin Atkinson wasted no time in discharging the Liverpool striker for his careless act.

Benitez blamed the referee for having a bit of slow judgment on the match, saying that if he only saw that Mikel tried to kick Crouch twice, he would have not sent off the red card. The coach is disappointed with his team losing the game because he believes that they have played really well, and that he is more than pleased with the club’s performance. In all fairness to Chelsea, they have played just as well.

On the other hand, Chelsea manager Avram Grant believes that Crouch shouldn’t have lunged Mikel even with being guilty of kicking their club’s striker. On Benitez’ being angry about the red card, the priority of every game is to keep any player from getting hurt, under any circumstance. Even though it is true that his player did try to kick Crouch, he shouldn’t have done what he did. Both coaches believe that they have a good chance of winning the title this season. Let’s just hope that the games won’t have more red cards. Nobody likes getting anyone dismissed.

Posted in General