Liverpool Football Club

• Nickname:Reds
• Founded:1892
• Manager:Brendan Rodgers

• Ground:Anfield
• Capacity:45362

Rafa defuses Allardyce row

25 Apr 2009 - 14:28:03

Click To Enlarge

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has moved to try and end the row surrounding his gestures during the 4-0 win over Blackburn Rovers.

Benitez was accused of making dismissive hand gestures towards the Rovers bench when his side took a two-goal lead

Benitez told The Daily Mail: "Xabi Alonso and Emiliano Insua were standing over a free-kick and I was shouting orders to them in Spanish.

"I kept saying 'play it short' because I thought there could be a surprise element.

"But Xabi just whipped it straight into the area and when Fernando Torres headed it in, he turned round and gave me a big grin.

"I had to laugh and I just made a sign to say 'okay, don't listen to me'."

Rovers boss Sam Allardyce had earlier fumed: "I think if everybody has a look back at his gestures you will see them as pretty dismissive to me and the Blackburn Rovers team as a whole.

"I was hugely disappointed by those gestures. I think they were disrespectful and quite humiliating.

"The feeling was that he had written us off. It was open arms and then a crossover of the arms as if to suggest that was it.

"In terms of respect, you don't expect those sorts of things to happen in a game of football. I was very, very upset by it."