Gunners blast the ref

Published : May 27, 2006 00:00 IST

Simmering resentment boiled over after the Champions League final as Thierry Henry departed Paris with an uncharacteristically vehement attack on the performance of the Norwegian referee Terje Hauge and his assistants who he deemed had unfairly favoured Barcelona to contribute to Arsenal's Champions League defeat.

Henry (appealing for a yellow card to be shown to a Barca player, in Pic.) was livid at the treatment he received from Bar�a's players, and their centre-halves in particular, which was constantly overlooked by the officials and, with his manager, shared incredulity at the legitimacy of Samuel Eto'o's equaliser, which Arsenal claimed was offside.

"I don't know if the referee had a Barcelona shirt on because they kicked me all over the place," said the France international, who had seen one of the original linesman for this game, Ole Hermann Borgan, replaced at the last minute following the publication of photographs of him wearing the Catalans' strip. "Some of his calls were strange. Maybe next time I'll learn how to dive. I expect the referee to do his job but I don't think he did. In fact, I'd like to have seen a proper referee out there. So many times [Carles] Puyol should have got a yellow card and so many times [Rafael] Marquez came from behind to take my ankles.

I have ended with bruises all over my body. I've also been told that their first goal [by Eto'o] was offside. They are already a good team, so if you help them, it is going to be very difficult to beat them."

Wenger was equally scathing in his assessment of Barcelona's equalising goal, for all that television replays were inconclusive in determining whether or not the Cameroon striker was offside when charging on to Henrik Larsson's clever flick. "It's difficult to accept losing a game anyway but worse when you have to accept losing it on a wrong decision," said the Arsenal manager.

"That goal was offside and it was proven on television. At this level, we shouldn't have to accept it in the future. We have to do something about it. That goal is my biggest regret. To play 11 against 10 and be on top of that situation, but then to concede an offside goal is difficult to accept. I thought the whole story of changing the linesman because of the Barcelona shirt was not important. But, when we concede an offside goal, no one says anything."

The Frenchman accepted — albeit reluctantly — Hauge's decision to dismiss Jens Lehmann for tripping Eto'o. "It was a red card," he conceded, "but I wouldn't blame my goalkeeper for that. I heard the whistle blow for the foul before the ball hit the net, and the referee couldn't assume [Ludovic] Giuly would score, so I understand that decision."

"The referee could have given advantage to Barcelona but he had to make a very quick decision and it is difficult for refs to make the right decisions in that situation," said Lehmann. "It was a great achievement to play 10 against 11 against a good side and to be leading but, unfortunately, we had a referee who made two decisions against us." Even so, Arsenal might have extended the lead squeezed by Sol Campbell's first-half header with Henry charging clear of Bar�a's rearguard on to Alexander Hleb's pass, only for V�ctor Vald�s to save.

"I had nothing in my legs, nothing whatsoever," conceded Henry, who has now not scored on his last nine appearances at the Stade.

"No disrespect to Barcelona, I feel we played better than them when it was 11 against 11. We can be proud.

Henrik Larsson was the difference, but I didn't see Ronaldinho and I didn't see Eto'o at any point — but, I'm sorry, some of the refereeing today was horrendous."

Dominic Fifield/� Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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