Steven Gerrard's unforgettable winner against Olympiakos in 2004 200

I’VE always been a believer that luck evens itself out over the season; however I didn’t expect it to go into balance within four days.

The events at White Hart Lane on Saturday, when a totally dominant display was undone through a freak own goal and last-minute sloppy defending, defied belief and must have left many a Liverpool fan wondering if Harry Potter had taken over at Spurs rather than Harry Redknapp. But if Lady Luck deserted us on that occasion she returned in full red regalia late on Tuesday, sprinkling some scarlet stardust into the eyes of the Swedish linesman, and Hey Presto! we had a penalty out of thin air.

This outrageous award, and the hilarious scenes that followed as yellow cards were thrust at Atletico players like crosses at a vampire, brought back memories of a similar European refereeing aberration at Anfield in 2001, when Jose Maria-Garcia-Aranda awarded Roma a penalty for hand-ball against Markus Babbel, then changed his mind and swung his pointing arm away from the spot and towards the corner flag. Then, as now, disbelieving opponents not unreasonably sought an explanation and were met with a volley of cautions.

Tomassi was subsequently sent off, and a further parallel was surely only avoided last night by the lateness of the equaliser. Aguero’s booking for blasting the restart blindly towards the Annie Road end climaxed the high farce before we were allowed to slope off home with a smirk and a giggle hiding our embarrassment.

The bizarre end to the game tended to distract attention from what had been a pretty disappointing performance.