Saturday, March 14, 2009

Mascherano Give Refs Silent Treatment


Javier Mascherano has vowed to keep his head at Old Trafford later today – because he dreads doing anything to spoil Liverpool’s chances of reviving their title hopes by beating Manchester United.

The midfielder, appointed captain of Argentina by legendary boss Diego Maradona earlier this season, admitted he let Liverpool down when he was sent off in the corresponding fixture 12 months ago.

It came just weeks after boss Rafa Benitez finally landed his man in an £18.6m permanent deal, a year after ending his unhappy spell at West Ham by taking him on loan.

Liverpool went into that match on a high after completing a Champions League double over Inter Milan.

But with Liverpool trailing to a Wes Brown goal, Mascherano was booked by referee Steve Bennett just before half-time for chopping down Paul Scholes.

Then he was shown a second yellow for dissent and sent off – and United went on to win 3-0.

Mascherano claimed that all he had done was ask Bennett why he had booked Fernando Torres.

But the way in which he repeatedly demanded an explanation from the official left him in hot water.

Mascherano said: “I made a mistake last season and it was a very sad day for me.

“But I have learned the lessons and I know that it will not happen again.

“Now I am just trying to play for my team and I try not to talk any more with the referees.”

Tomorrow’s referee Alan Wiley can expect Mascherano to keep quiet.

But the midfielder was in ­trouble at Anfield on Tuesday when he was booked by Belgian referee Frank de Bleeckere for kicking the ball away during the 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Replays showed that Mascherano kicked the ball as the official was blowing his whistle, not afterwards.

But the Argentinian is now banned for the first leg of the quarter-finals.

Mascherano said: “He told me I kicked the ball away, but I thought that I kicked the ball and then the whistle went.

“But we are happy because we played really well.

“It is not easy to beat a team like Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League, especially not with a result like this.

“We are happy, but we know that it will be a difficult game on Saturday.

“We have to see if we can play the same way as we did against Real Madrid and then we will see what happens.”

1 comment:

minicharms said...

Yeah, he did kept his mouth shut this time round.