Source: Team_Talk
Redknapp: Penalty awards were spot on
Harry Redknapp felt Tottenham deserved two of the penalties they were awarded in the 4-1 Champions League victory over FC Twente.[LNB] Doubts hung over the first and third spot-kicks given by referee Terje Hauge at White Hart Lane, with Roman Pavlyuchenko converting two of them and Rafael van der Vaart missing one.[LNB]Peter Crouch appeared to go over too easily for the first, Gareth Bale was illegally scythed down for the second while the third saw Wout Brama harshly censured for handball even though he was trying to evade Pavlyuchenko's shot.[LNB]"It was exciting stuff. The first two penalties were blatant and I don't know how you couldn't give them," said Redknapp.[LNB]"Crouch was pulled down, wrestled to the floor. For the second one Bale beat the fella like he did all night and was pulled down. It was a blatant penalty.[LNB]"On the third the ball travelled a long way and it was a soft penalty but you see them given.[LNB]"There was nothing wrong with van der Vaart's goal and it was a fantastic finish from Bale at the end."[LNB]Van der Vaart made amends for his first-half miss from the spot by scoring a well-taken opener shortly after the interval.[LNB]The goal sparked an incident-packed 18 minutes that also saw the Dutchman sent off for picking up two yellow cards.[LNB]"Van der Vaart will now be suspended for Inter Milan," said Redknapp.[LNB]"I was thinking about subbing him just before he got sent off.[LNB]"He made bit of a rash challenge on the other side and I was concerned that if he made one more that was mistimed he'd be sent off.[LNB]"It wasn't a malicious challenge. It was a bad forward's challenge. I've seen a lot worse."[LNB]Bale sealed victory with a beautifully-finished fourth but Spurs were wide open at times and did not dominate the game as the scoreline suggests.[LNB]But Redknapp defended his adventurous team selection after they claimed second place in Group A.[LNB]"We picked an open team who went for it. We could have played with one up with Van der Vaart behind, but went for it and got four goals," said[LNB]"It was a fantastic result. We won 4-1 so I picked the right team. It's not a problem.[LNB]"You pick different teams for different games. I felt we'd take a chance but there are certain games where you wouldn't do that.[LNB]"It was a great night for us. It was a great atmosphere and we won the game. You can't do much more than that."[LNB]Twente coach Michel Preud'homme questioned why Hauge failed to award his side a penalty when Crouch handled the ball given he had penalised Brama for the same offence.[LNB]"If you give a penalty to one side for stopping the ball with the hand you have to penalise the other team for doing the same thing," he said.[LNB]"We fought back to 2-1 and took many risks to get back into the game. But that third penalty changed everything.[LNB]"The third penalty took a long time to award. Now we have six referees and they all have to speak with each other."
