Much has been made about Chelsea FC‘s reaction to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s tackle on Oscar that saw the big striker sent off rather harshly. Zlatan himself said that the worst thing about the card was not that it was a red but being surrounded by “Chelsea babies”. He obviously believes that the players surrounding the referee is what got him sent off, not the fact that he should not have lunged two footed in to a challenge, even if he did pull out.
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Pundits such as Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher blasted Chelsea for surrounding the referee, calling their actions “disgraceful”. The only disgrace here is former players who suddenly adopt a holier than thou attitude once they put on a suit and start talking about football in a studio.
Carragher and Neville were both fiery characters on the pitch and they should know better than most how much emotion goes in to a big Champions League night. The Chelsea FC players saw their teammate in what appeared to be a great deal of pain and without the benefit of slow motion replay, it looked like a very dirty challenge which caused it.
To expect them not to react is just plain silly and thankfully at least one person saw that it was an appropriate reaction. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard, himself an emotional player, defended the Chelsea FC players’ actions as “normal”.
Gerrard said, “I think it’s normal when you play games at that level. Players want to win so much, and you’ve got managers who want to win so much. Players will try every trick in the book to try to get over the line and win football matches. Sometimes it doesn’t look nice, but we’ve all been guilty of it throughout our careers — not always abiding by the rules. Football’s not always going to look nice.”
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Granted it was not the most dignified reaction but this was already a testy affair considering the teams’ pasts and the connections between them. This was not a charity match, it was an emotional Champions League night where European glory was at stake. The players did nothing wrong by coming to the defense of their teammate and they reacted exactly the same way PSG players, or any players, would have if the tables were turned.
All of these pundits can sit and preach about class and what is a disgrace and what is not but it does not matter. The match on Wednesday was full of controversial incidents and questionable actions from both teams and the real issue should have been how easily the referee lost control of the match.
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