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....
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.
“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.”
