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Thursday, 7 May 2009

Chelsea captain Terry defends foul-mouthed Drogba over referee rant


Chelsea captain John Terry has insisted he has no problem with the way Didier Drogba reacted to last night's controversial Champions League defeat to Barcelona.

The Blues were denied a second consecutive appearance in the European Cup final by Andres Iniesta's injury-time goal which earned Barca a 1-1 draw on the night and won the tie on aggregate.

But Chelsea were infuriated that a string of penalty appeals, the last of them after Iniesta's goal, were rejected by referee Tom Henning Ovrebo.
Angry Blues players, including Terry and Drogba, surrounded the Norwegian official at the final whistle and had to be pulled away by team-mates and stewards.

Drogba then broke away to scream 'Are you watching this? It is a f***ing disgrace' down the lens of a television camera.
But, asked to reflect on the controversial scenes, England captain John Terry refused to concede that his team-mate had overreacted, and instead condoned Drogba's actions.

'I am fully behind Didier Drogba for the way he reacted,' Terry said.

'The man wants to win. You can see the passion that he played with during the game and the passion afterwards.

'It is difficult when players are so high on emotions after the game and people were saying in the Sky TV studios that we shouldn't be reacting the way we did.

'That's impossible after having six or seven decisions go against you at home in front of your own fans. I've seen them all and two were clear penalties and you don't get one. How are you supposed to feel?

'If we had been given one of those penalties we would have been cruising at 2-0. We did exactly what the manager asked of us but we are not going through because of a bad refereeing decision.'

And Terry argued Uefa should act to ensure the best referees are always put in charge of the big games, insisting Ovrebo wasn't experienced, or good enough, to be given last night's match.

'It's a shambles really. Players dream of playing in these finals but we can't through bad refereeing,' he added.

'We get a referee who has refereed ten Champions League games in his career and for him to be given the semi-final at Stamford Bridge is not good enough.

'If a referee makes bad decisions, he should face the consequences. If a player makes mistakes time after time, he will be dropped from the team, but referees just keep getting the big games at big stadiums.

'It is down to Uefa to be strong enough and say these are our four best referees and they are going to referee the home and away legs.

'Both sides had experienced players but we just didn't have the referee to go with a big game.

'Not one player made a mistake over the two legs but we come away with a referee making four or five big errors and now we are out of the competition.

'Maybe that referee would have been good enough in the group stages of the Champions League but on a big stage, with a big game and big players, he simply wasn't good enough.'

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