FAC ~ Spurs 1 - 5 Chelsea ; Ref scores the second goal...
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Bentley surprise Tottenham candidate to plug injury gaps for FA Cup semi showdown
Back in action: Bentley (left) is back in training and could feature at Wembley
Tottenham vs Chelsea
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Time: 1:00 am - (Live)(Mon Morning)
Mio Channel 115
David Bentley is poised to return from the wilderness as Harry Redknapp tackles injury problems on the eve of Tottenham's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
Bentley has not played since October when a serious knee injury curtailed a loan spell at West Ham and has not appeared for Spurs since November 2010.
However, he is back in full training with the first team and likely to feature among the substitutes at Wembley on Sunday because Niko Kranjcar is out with a knee injury he picked up this week, Aaron Lennon's hamstrings have been unreliable and Stephen Pienaar is on loan at Everton.
Bentley's career has lost direction since his £15million move from Blackburn to Tottenham in 2008.He ended last season on loan at Birmingham but could be back in a Spurs shirt at Wembley five years after becoming the first Englishman to score in the new stadium with a goal for England Under 21s against Italy.
Redknapp's other main concern is in central defence. Younes Kaboul is out with a knee injury, Michael Dawson is a long-term absentee and Ledley King is also a doubt.
Ryan Nelsen is expected to partner William Gallas if King fails to make it - leaving Tottenham with a centre-half pairing with a combined age of 68.
The injuries leave Tottenham's transfer policy open to question when they allowed experienced defensive cover Sebastian Bassong and Vedran Corluka and winger Pienaar to leave in January.
Kranjcar's knee injury threatens to rule him out of Euro 2012 with Croatia.
In good spirits: Kyle Walker (right) and Emmanuel Adebayor get to grips with each other
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Spurs have a good chance of winning. Chelsea's mind will be too preoccupied in this thursday's game against Barcelona.
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walau so late. sian
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Originally posted by dragg:
walau so late.
sian
Two London clubs should be a cracking game! -
Spurs fan must hate it man. Their season started promisingly. Now it looks likely they' ll end disastrously. Can they finish 4th to save their season? Is redknapp still focused or looking forward to his England appointment?
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And the scorer of the second goal is... the referee
Atkinson says sorry to Harry
LINE CALL ... Benoit Assou-Ekotto appears to stop the ball going over
The goal that never was: Juan Mata (right) is awarded a goal despite the ball not crossing the line
The goal that never was: Juan Mata (right) is awarded a goal despite the ball not crossing the line
We're going to Wembley, again: Chelsea thrashed Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final....
REF Martin Atkinson said sorry to Harry Redknapp for awarding Chelsea a ghost goal that wrecked Spurs’ FA Cup hopes at Wembley.
The Tottenham boss confronted the official after this drubbing to ask why Juan Mata’s goal was allowed to put the Blues 2-0 up in a cracking semi-final, even though it never crossed the line.
Redknapp said: “Atkinson’s watched it now and says he feels worse than I do. I said, ‘I don’t think so’. But he says he feels bad.
“He knows he’s made a mistake and he says he’ll have a bad week as well.”
In a crazy twist, Atkinson will be going to Euro 2012 as one of England’s officials and there is every chance he will be used as a goal-line assistant to help refs make crucial decisions.
Redknapp added: “The referee must have guessed. He can’t have been sure. You can’t look at it and think it’s in.
“He’s just made an honest mistake. He’s not done it on purpose.
“I don’t see how he can give the goal — it’s nowhere near over the line. It’s not as if it’s gone in and someone’s kicked it away.
“There were bodies on the line and the ball couldn’t possibly get over the line.
“There’s nothing we can do about it now. Goal-line technology has to come into the game. You can’t keep having situations like that.
“You can’t carry on like this, with important decisions not being correct.
“Refs don’t make mistakes purposefully. I never had a clue from where I was sitting. I’m nowhere near the goal.
REFFIN' HELL ... Gareth Bale cannot fathom Martin Atkinson's decision“I couldn’t tell the difference from there but you could tell from the reaction of the players it wasn’t. It obviously wasn’t.
“But we have to pick ourselves up. We have to get fourth spot in the league — it won’t be easy but I hope we can do it”
Mata’s 49th-minute ‘goal’ followed Didier Drogba’s stunning first-half opener.
Although Gareth Bale pulled one back, Chelsea romped into the final to face Liverpool thanks to further goals by Ramires, Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda.
Blues boss Roberto Di Matteo said: “In the case of the second goal, we were lucky. But many times before we’ve had decisions go against us.
“But we didn’t score two goals. We scored five. I don’t know how much it would matter.”
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Actually in this pictures, the ball seemed to have crossed the line leh... Wonder what's the fuss about...
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time for video technology. FIFA should accept its inevitable. how many more mistakes do they want to make? whats the point of apologizing after the fact?
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Or there should be some way to allow refs to cancel/remake their decision after video replay on screen at any stadium?
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imbra
spurs players all say terry foul when benoit clears line ..
ref dun give a fck