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Dubious referee decisions cost Arsenal big in Moscow
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
17th Oct 2006
CSKA Moscow 1 Arsenal 0
A dubious decision to disallow Henry's late goal condemned Arsenal to their first defeat in seven matches. With the score at 1 - 0 to CSKA Moscow, Henry scored what he thought was an equalizer four minutes from full time, but the referee, M E M Gonzalez adjudged that the Arsenal skipper controlled the ball with his arm, and gave him a yellow card instead. Television replays show that Henry used his chest to control the ball, and the referee got it wrong. It was a frustrating night for Arsenal even before that referee error. Manager Arsene Wenger was right to complain about the poor conditions of the pitch, just like Frank Rijkaard was right to complain about Chelsea's pitch last season. For a Champions League match, it should be a basic requirement that the playing surface be of a certain standard. The muddy conditions seriously dampened Arsenal's sleek passing game and CSKA Moscow were the better side throughout the match.
Brazilian Daniel Carvalho de Silva scored the winner from a 20 yard free kick. After the goal, CSKA Moscow defended intelligently to deny Arsenal any opportunity. Although apart from Henry's disallowed goal, Gilberto Silva also had a goal ruled out.
Thierry Henry was understandably furious after the match, "The referee saw a handball when there wasn't a handball. You will have to ask him why this is so.
"He gave me a yellow for a deliberate handball but if you can see that on the replay I'll give you whatever you want.
"I know it was a clean and clear goal. The keeper and defenders did not call it, only a linesman 60 yards away."
"I asked the referee and the linesman at the end what they saw and they could not tell me what they saw.
"I was fuming; he should have given me a red card for deliberate handball, that would have been the cherry on the cake.
"I just hope that what goes around comes around and it'll be our turn next time."
Arsene Wenger also had a lot to complain about.
"It was a very intense game and we battled back in difficult circumstances, one of which was the quality of the pitch," the Arsenal manager said. "This was an October pitch in Russia.
"Uefa has to look into that because it is not acceptable to play on pitches like that in the Champions League. CSKA are a good side. They deserve a better pitch as well because then they would be much better."
Wenger felt that refereeing of the match was not up to standard,
"The referee has not seen anything; I felt it was a goal." He said of Henry's disallowed goal. "We have to accept sometimes that referees give goals because they do not see things.
"Now we have something new - they cancel goals because they saw things which did not exist. That's a problem."
Russia has always been a tough place for Arsenal. They have lost all three of their matches played there. But Wenger believes that they will be triumphant when the Russian team visits the Emirates Stadium in the next match.
"A Russian team could win the Champions' League in the next decade. Russia's a football country and they have as much money now as everywhere else and they are producing good teams," he said. "But I feel we'll show we can beat them in the second game."
Arsenal needs to win their next match against the Russian side or they will be under pressure from Porto, who won their match against Hamburg. Three matches in, CSKA Moscow are on top of the table, Arsenal 2nd and Porto 3rd.
CSKA Moscow
Igor Akinfeev, Alexey Berezutsky, A, Vassily Berezutsky, V, Sergey Ignashevich, Deividas Semberas, Evgeniy Aldonin (Milos Krasic), Daniel Carvalho da Silva (Ivan Taranov), Alexandro Dudu Cearense, Elver Rahimic, Yuri Zhirkov, Silva Nascimento Vagner Love (Ivica Olic)
Goal: Daniel Carvalho da Silva
Arsenal
Jens Lehmann, Johan Djourou (Gael Clichy), William Gallas, Justin Hoyte, Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas, Aleksandr Hleb, Tomas Rosicky (Theo Walcott), Gilberto Silva, Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie (Emmanuel Adebayor)
Referee: Gonzalez, M E M
Venue: Lokomotiv Stadium
Attendance: 36,500
5:00 PM
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