Crouch red card 'not necessary'
Peter Crouch was dismissed after an hour for horro tackle on Mikel
Thursday, 20, Dec 2007 09:02
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has claimed referee Martin Atkinson could have prevented the incident that saw Peter Crouch sent off last night.
The England striker seemed uncharacteristically ruffled against Chelsea during his side's 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup quarter-finals.
Crouch lashed out with a reckless, lunging challenge on John Obi Mikel for which he received his marching orders on the hour.
But Benitez claimed the tall forward's reaction was a result of the referee not taking action earlier to prevent some overly-physical treatment towards Crouch.
"The decision finished the game," Benitez lamented afterwards.
"Mikel tried to kick Crouch twice and that is the reason Crouch lost his head.
"If the referee blows his whistle before, you avoid the sending off."
Benitez also defended the actions of his player, saying he has "seen more dangerous tackles and sometimes they are a yellow card or less".
However he admitted he was "disappointed" not to have scored, which he claimed was down to the performance of Blues goalkeeper Petr Cech.
"I am disappointed my team has lost but we played really well with 11 men," he said.
"We passed the ball well and created good chances but they had a very good goalkeeper."