Benitez plays down fracas

Aug 6 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ believes referee Pieter Vink was to blame for the fracas that marred Liverpool’s bad-tempered friendly against Feyenoord last night.

A fiery encounter boiled over in the closing moments when Steven Gerrard appeared to push Theo Lucius in the face during an unseemly altercation involving most of the players on both sides after the Dutch defender had shoved Daniel Agger.

Gerrard, unhappy with a late tackle from Feyenoord goalscorer Royston Drenthe on Ryan Babel, was shown a yellow card, one of nine players – six of them from Liverpool – to be cautioned by the over-officious Vink. Benitez does not believe any further action should be taken against Gerrard, and instead pointed to the performance of the officials after Dirk Kuyt was denied a valid goal and Feyenoord were awarded a debatable penalty.

“Some of the decisions made by the referee were strange and maybe that was the reason that people were a little bit nervous towards the end,” said Benitez. “I couldn’t see what happened with Steven, but if you analyse the whole game maybe we must ask the referee about everything.

“It was hard to see what was going on and I would want to review the match before commenting. But I do not think Steven will be in trouble, in this kind of tournament. I don’t intend to talk to him about the incident. There was a lot going on out on the pitch.”

Gerrard had earlier netted a 73rd-minute equaliser after Drenthe put Feyenoord ahead on the stroke of half-time. The Liverpool skipper was selected in a central midfield role and Benitez revealed Gerrard will feature more often in his preferred role in the coming season.

“We know that Steven can play in each position, but he likes and enjoys himself playing in the middle and I think he will play a lot more games there this season,” he said.

Pepe Reina saved an 86th-minute penalty by Luigi Bruins after Alvaro Arbeloa was harshly adjudged to have handled – television replays suggested the ball hit the Spaniard’s head – to ensure Liverpool avoided defeat in their final pre-season game. However, the draw wasn’t enough to win the Port of Rotterdam Tournament with Porto claiming the silverware following their 3-0 victory over Shanghai Shenhua earlier in the day. Liverpool missed a number of chances to have secured the win.

“It was a good game with opportunities for both sides,” Benitez said. “We had some chances and, okay, we could have scored more goals, but in terms of football it was okay.”

Benitez reported no injury problems and said Harry Kewell had been taken off during the second half as a precaution.