Mourinho: Referee must be careful

14 April 2012

There is nothing new about German players and accusations of diving. Michael Ballack's theatrical tumble in injury time of the European Cup quarter-final first leg at Stamford Bridge six days ago infuriated the Chelsea players and had John Terry on the verge of apoplexy.

The defender could no more dive than take up polo. He might not be averse to the odd bit of obstruction in the box but diving? Never!

"It's not what we're about in England," he said indignantly. "But they come over and do that. He got the penalty he wanted but the referee should have been on his case because he was diving all night."

Eidur Gudjohnsen was similarly unimpressed. "People want diving out of the game but unfortunately it happened against Bayern," he said.

So did the Bayern Munich star dive? Are you kidding? Can Tiger Woods sink a putt? Ballack is accused of being the latest in a line of German players who, let's say, go to ground a little easily.

Tottenham fans, for example, remember Jurgen Klinsmann with undiluted affection but he was another who sometimes went down like he'd been shot. In fact it was Ron Atkinson, not always a pillar of diplomacy, who once said of the striker: "I saw Jurgen shake hands with Gary Lineker just now and I expected him to fall down!"

Ballack insists Ricardo Carvalho's challenge on him was a foul and the penalty was legitimate.

The talented Bayern star scored from the spot-kick for a goal which makes tonight's second leg interesting rather than the foregone conclusion it was looking when the score was 4-1.

Carvalho, Terry and the rest of the Chelsea defence will be acutely aware of the danger in tackling in their penalty area tonight. One false move, one double pike with twist and Bayern could be back in this quarter-final. But

Ballack has denied diving and UEFA have backed him after reviewing the video evidence from the game.

Jose Mourinho has no intentions, in his final team talk before disappearing into the grandstand of the Olympic Stadium, of telling his players to be careful. "It is not us who have to be careful but the referee," said the Chelsea head coach.

"We could have had five penalties like Ballack's against Birmingham on Saturday but they were not given."

The man in the middle is experienced Spanish official Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez and Mourinho will be looking for him to be resolute. It is not easy for referees these days, though. Many modern strikers are conditioned to fall like a sack of coal if they feel the slightest contact. Chelsea's Arjen Robben is one.

But Bayern's England midfielder Owen Hargreaves admits the fate of big matches like tonight's can sometimes hinge on such decisions. "I don't think I've heard of a serial diver before," said Hargreaves in response to a question about Ballack. "I thought it was a good decision by the referee.

"Carvalho put his hand out and started to tug Ballack's shirt. A very experienced player should think twice before he does something like that. If you look at big decisions, Chelsea's first goal could have been offside but generally the match was very fair."

Mikael Forssell, likely to replace Mateja Kezman on the substitutes' bench, supported Terry but was pragmatic. "We all looked at the incident on TV afterwards," he said. "And it was an easy foul if you could call it a foul at all. He went down quite easily. But as a professional footballer, who wouldn't go down?"

Gonzalez had better get it right or he will incur the wrath of Mourinho, a fearsome thing indeed.

Most important of all though is that, despite what Forssell says, there are still players like Terry, who believe that diving is beyond the pale.

MORE ABOUT

P Funk

Mourinho: Referee must be careful

Read More