Referee blew it for us, insists Zenden

May 24 2007 by David Prentice, Liverpool Echo

REDS midfielder Bolo Zenden accused German referee Herbert Fandel of giving cheap free-kicks which cost Liverpool dearly in Athens last night.

The Dutch winger complained: “I didn’t think that we played that aggressively, but the referee seemed quite eager to give free-kicks against us.

“The stats say that we committed a lot of fouls, but I think the referee gave a lot of fouls easily.

“On a night like this obviously you need everything to go your way.”

The most decisive free-kick came a minute before half-time when Xabi Alonso was penalised for a challenge on Milan dangerman Kaka.

Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick was deflected off Filipo Inzaghi’s shoulder to give the Italians a huge psychological advantage going into the half-time interval.

“I don’t know if the free-kick struck Inzaghi’s hand. Maybe it did,” Zenden added. “But the deflection has given the goalkeeper no chance. It made it very difficult for us and Milan weren’t going to make the same mistake as they made in Istanbul.

“Dirk Kuyt’s goal came quite late and didn’t leave us much time to equalise.

“We started quite well and decided to put pressure on Milan. We had a few chances, maybe not clear open ones, but I think we felt we were really in the game.

“But then they got the break just before half-time. We needed to score a goal to make life easier but our goal came too late.

“We always had a chance and we always had a belief that it would happen, but not a lot of free-kicks were going our way. You just have to keep going and try and overcome the circumstances. But in the end we couldn’t quite do it.”