Refereeing Nonsense Leaves Mascherano Out For Quarter Final Clash

Over the last couple of weeks I've been quite looking forward to Liverpool vs Chelsea. Our performances against The Blues this season have been very solid, and that coupled with our recent Premiership form and our constant European prowess had all led to me being quietly confident that I would be watching a Liverpool vs Bayern Munich/ Barcelona semi-final in a few weeks time.

That is untill I saw the article on F365 today, reminding me about one of the worst refereeing decisions I've seen in this or any other season, one that left me fuming at the time it occured, but which I had forgotten about during the last three incredible weeks.

In the 43rd minute of our 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid, Xabi Alonso tripped Pepe a few yards outside of the Liverpool penalty area. Now having watched the replay multiple times, I can guarantee you that Mascherano clears the ball, something any player would have done, at exactly the same time as the referee blows his whistle for the foul. It was a blatant trip, Liverpool were 2-0 up, Mascherano has been much more composed this season than he has been previously, there is simply no explanation as to why he would have kicked the ball away. On top of this, the referee could be seen to count up on his fingers the 1, 2, 3, 4 previous fouls that Alonso, not Mascherano had committed, before booking the Argentinian captain. The commentators were left bemused, as were I, the whole of Anfield and Mascherano himself, who pleaded his innocence with the referee.

Despite the fact that it was clearly a case of mistaken identity, Mascherano remains suspended for Wednesday night's clash, probably to be replaced by Lucas, who on current form is at best capable, and at worst a serious liability.

Now to the point. Firstly, I don't know one football fan who would claim that Lucas is in anywhere the same league as Mascherano, especially in the role of defensive midfield, one which will be decisive tomorrow night as he will be marking Frank Lampard, Chelsea's best player, second top scorer and talisman.

Fair enough people claim that Liverpool do not have the depth to replace a player like Mascherano, what club does? But the fact that we've lost such a crucial player, in such a crucial match, to such a ridiculous decision, will make anything other than victory very hard to swallow, especially if Lampard plays a deciding role in the game.

And secondly, the referee that night was Frank De Bleeckere from Belgium. Now I realise that it's necessary to have neutral referee's in competitions as big as the Champions League, but surely it is also as important to have match officials with experience of controlling big games on a weekly basis. If Serie A referee's officiated games involving English and Spanish teams, Premiership ref's got French and German teams, La Liga officials were given Italian and Portugese sides etc then I think it is highly likely that situations such as this would arise less often.