Rafa Benitez frustrated by ‘soft’ penalty decision
Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez was left frustrated by a “soft” penalty decision during his side’s 1-0 Europa League last-16 first leg defeat to Steaua Bucharest.
The Romanians netted the only goal of the encounter in the 34th minute, after Ryan Bertrand was adjudged to have hauled down Raul Rusescu in the area.
The striker got up from the challenge to slot the ball past Petr Cech, leaving the Blues with much work to do in the return game at Stamford Bridge.
Benitez was critical of the officials after the game, insisting that their decision to award a spot kick was harsh:
“I think it was very soft. To give a penalty in this situation, and especially when you have so many referees in their positions, it is soft,” he is quoted by Sky Sports.
“You cannot change the situation but it is very soft. If you give the penalty, why not the red card? Strange.”
The Spaniard went on to say that his team were unfortunate not to get an away goal, but that he is still confident of booking a spot in the quarter-finals:
“I felt we could have scored and now we have to do everything at Stamford Bridge.
“It will be difficult because they are quite organised, they work very hard and they can counter-attack. But we have confidence that we will do well at Stamford Bridge.”
Cech was also frustrated after the game, echoing the opinions of his manager:
“This is not the result we want to get away from home in the first leg but to be fair we had better chances than them.“
March 8th, 2013
Come on! Tell us why the tactics did not work? The players at fault again?