Chelsea FC

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Livid Terry blames ref for exit

07 May 2009 - 08:28:58

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Chelsea captain John Terry does not think Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo was good enough to officiate his side's Champions League semi-final second leg clash against Barcelona.

The Blues crashed out of the competition on the away goals rule, but only after Ovrebo had rejected a string of penalty appeals by the Blues.

Barcelona eventually won through to a Final against Manchester United later this month when Andres Iniesta grabbed a dramatic stoppage-time goal.

But after the game a furious Terry said: "Over two legs Barcelona played well but the fact is that, in this game, we had six or seven penalty claims waved away and that is astonishing.

"Anywhere else, anywhere else in the world that wouldn't happen.

"You can see he might not have given the first one, but come the second where Nicolas Anelka puts it round Gerard Pique and he slams it down with his hand?

"It's decisions like that which are wrong - Darren Fletcher misses the Final after being sent-off for Manchester United on Tuesday, a bad decision.

"He can't play in the Final and neither can we, because of a bad decision in this match.

"The word conspiracy is maybe the wrong one. It's difficult when players are so high on emotion after a game.

"However, people are saying we shouldn't have reacted the way we did. But the fact is, six decisions went against us in front of 40,000 people. And for the ref to not give one of them is unusual.

"So it's not surprising for us to come off the field and show that emotion.

"Why did we get a referee who has officiated in ten games in the Champions League in his career? To be given the Champions League semi-final, that's not good enough."