Rafa Benitez was left to rue a "strange" decision that saw the Reds denied a goal, in a frustrating 0-0 draw with Stoke at Anfield. Stevie Gerrard had a goal ruled out by referee Andre Marriner, as he gave Dirk Kuyt offside, even though he didn't even touch the ball and there was no flag from the assistant. This left Rafa furious with Marriner and he launched an attack, telling Sky Sports:
'It is difficult to explain. When we scored the first goal the game would be open and just the referee in a very bad position disallowed the goal.
'It is strange as I have watched the replay and no one can understand why [the goal was disallowed]. His [the referee's] position is impossible. It is impossible to have a good view, if it was the linesman you could say okay it could be offside but it wasn't.
'Very, very strange [decision], but the referee normally is very, very strange.
'He said to Carra that he disallowed it but didn't say why so maybe he doesn't know.'
Rafa believes that this disallowed goal did make a major difference in the outcome of the match, with things almost certain to have been different otherwise, as he explained:
'Really [the disallowed goal] could be a massive difference, we knew it could be a massive difference, but again having said that we have to score more goals and I think we tried.
'The team was working so hard trying to do everything.
'We had plenty of possession, we were attacking both sides, shooting from distance, playing between the lines.
'At the end of the day the keeper was good in two or three situations but when they defend so deep you don't have space.
'We were controlling and attacking all the time so you cannot do everything perfect and in this case I think the final third we could be better.'
All in all Rafa, despite his anger, couldn't hide his disappointment at two points dropped at Anfield. He does feel that we will still have a good season though as we are still in a good position, even if it could've been better, he added:
'Yeah I am really disappointed as I think this is a game we deserved to win and we could be in a much better situation.
'But we are top of the table and we are in a good position, could be better, but a good position.'
Sometimes you just have one of these matches where nothing goes, but to be fair we have seen a fair amount of fortune this season, times when we haven't played well, or deserved a win, and have still managed it so we can't complain that much really can we? Had this goal not been ruled out after only a minute and a half on the clock the chances are we would've scored a hatful. However for whatever reason the goal was ruled out and we couldn't break down a spirited Stoke rearguard, who deserve credit for this, no matter how hard we tried.
'It is difficult to explain. When we scored the first goal the game would be open and just the referee in a very bad position disallowed the goal.
'It is strange as I have watched the replay and no one can understand why [the goal was disallowed]. His [the referee's] position is impossible. It is impossible to have a good view, if it was the linesman you could say okay it could be offside but it wasn't.
'Very, very strange [decision], but the referee normally is very, very strange.
'He said to Carra that he disallowed it but didn't say why so maybe he doesn't know.'
Rafa believes that this disallowed goal did make a major difference in the outcome of the match, with things almost certain to have been different otherwise, as he explained:
'Really [the disallowed goal] could be a massive difference, we knew it could be a massive difference, but again having said that we have to score more goals and I think we tried.
'The team was working so hard trying to do everything.
'We had plenty of possession, we were attacking both sides, shooting from distance, playing between the lines.
'At the end of the day the keeper was good in two or three situations but when they defend so deep you don't have space.
'We were controlling and attacking all the time so you cannot do everything perfect and in this case I think the final third we could be better.'
All in all Rafa, despite his anger, couldn't hide his disappointment at two points dropped at Anfield. He does feel that we will still have a good season though as we are still in a good position, even if it could've been better, he added:
'Yeah I am really disappointed as I think this is a game we deserved to win and we could be in a much better situation.
'But we are top of the table and we are in a good position, could be better, but a good position.'
Sometimes you just have one of these matches where nothing goes, but to be fair we have seen a fair amount of fortune this season, times when we haven't played well, or deserved a win, and have still managed it so we can't complain that much really can we? Had this goal not been ruled out after only a minute and a half on the clock the chances are we would've scored a hatful. However for whatever reason the goal was ruled out and we couldn't break down a spirited Stoke rearguard, who deserve credit for this, no matter how hard we tried.
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