Ref apologises over Rangers penalty
29/09/2005 - 10:13:36
Rangers goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus has revealed how the referee admitted he made a mistake awarding a penalty in the Champions League game against Inter Milan.
Greek official Kyros Vassaras handed the Serie A stars the spot-kick when the match at the San Siro was still deadlocked.
He ruled Waterreus had hauled down Julio Cruz in the box even though the Dutch goalkeeper clearly made contact with the ball.
Cruz smashed the spot-kick off the post before a deflected David Pizarro free-kick eventually secured the points for Inter.
But Waterreus believes the referee’s nagging doubt over whether he should have awarded the penalty or not saved him from seeing red.
“I didn’t foul him,” stated the Rangers goalkeeper. “I immediately said to the referee that I touched the ball and, to be fair to him, he apologised after the game.
“He said sorry but he could have sent me off. Imagine being sent off, that would have been a disaster.
“You never know what’s in the mind of the referee but I think he gave me the yellow card because he wasn’t sure.
“But you can’t blame the referees. They have decisions to make.”
It is not the first time Waterreus has clashed with Cruz but he insists there is no personal war between the two.
He added: “There is history between me and Cruz. We played in Holland a few times and he once got a red card for kicking me into the stands.
“But there are no hard feelings. He still speaks a bit of Dutch and we spoke before the game.”
Waterreus claims there was little he could have done to prevent Pizarro’s free-kick hitting the back of the net after his effort had taken a slight deflection off team-mate Esteban Cambiasso.
And, although he acknowledges that Rangers were desperately unlucky to take nothing from the game, Waterreus believes they have to face the fact they came away from the San Siro empty-handed, no matter how well they played.
He said: “We could have had a point but, if I had to sum up the game in one sentence, I would say we lost to a deflection.
“I saw it coming very late and then it took a deflection, which makes it even more painful, but that is always the way in football.
“We watched all the Champions League games last night and you could see how many goals came from set-pieces.”
29/09/2005, 10:25 AM
Dublin12
I wonder will the ref apologise for not giving Liverpool a penalty last night.That was the most blatant penalty I've seen in a long time.
29/09/2005, 10:39 AM
joeSoap
It certainly looked like one, but in the slo-mo repay, the analyst made a good point. Gallas' arm never moved during the incident, and it did look like ball to hand.Good call imo.
30/09/2005, 9:04 AM
Junior
where the fcuk does the ref apologies for the penalty decision in that article???
“He said sorry but he could have sent me off. Imagine being sent off, that would have been a disaster
30/09/2005, 10:36 AM
ColinR
whilst the keeper did get a hand on the ball, it did nothing to take it out of the path of the striker, and there did seem to be contact - so the penalty was justified imo .
likewise, i haven't seen the ref apologise afterwards, only the keeper said he apologised, but how would the ref have seen a replay by that stage?
