Jose Mourinho could not forget Luis Garcia's
'ghost goal', even two years on when he returned to Merseyside for
a second European Cup semi-final that would prove even more painful
than the first. Time and again he had looked at the moment that
took Liverpool to the Istanbul final in 2005, and the then Chelsea
manager remained unconvinced that the ball had crossed the
line.
You wonder how long Arsene Wenger will nurse a grievance over the 'ghost
penalty' that almost certainly deprived Arsenal of victory
in the first leg of their quarter-final against Liverpool.
A born conspiracy theorist like Mourinho would have
made much of the fact that the man who ruled that Dirk Kuyt had not
brought down Alexander Hleb was not only Dutch, he knew Kuyt well
and lives a few miles from the striker's family home amid the sand
dunes and tulip fields of Katwijk.
Kuyt did not deny that he knew the referee, Pieter
Vink, but smiled when it was put to him that this might have had an
impact on his decision-making. "He does come from close to where I
grew up but it is wrong to say he did me a favour," the Liverpool
forward said.
"I had him many times in Holland, where he made a few
decisions against me, but I think he made a good one here and, to
be fair, he knows Robin van Persie, too. I think the penalty
decision was right. I touched Hleb but I never pulled his shirt, so
I don't think he deserved to get a penalty. It was close, but not a
penalty."
Wenger, naturally enough, disagreed, but it was Kuyt's
other intervention, sliding home to clip in Steven Gerrard's cross,
that would have troubled the Arsenal manager more. Arsenal will
travel to Merseyside in a worse position than Chelsea were in 2005
or 2007. Then, while Liverpool emerged each time from the first leg
at Stamford Bridge with the tie in the balance, in neither game did
they score an away goal.
"It was really important to get something to take back
to Anfield," Kuyt reflected. "Arsenal played really well, we have
to be honest about that. They gave a great performance but we got a
goal, and everybody knows what we can do at Anfield."
Kuyt is working on the basis that Arsenal will probably
score in the second leg. Only once in Arsenal's last nine visits to
Anfield have Liverpool kept a clean sheet against them. "I don't
think you can say we are favourites; it is going to be really,
really close," he said.
It was a goal that summed up his campaign - only one in
open play in the Premier League, but six in the Champions League.
Kuyt is an immensely popular figure at Anfield who has endured a
difficult second season on Merseyside, scarred by the death of his
father, and which has seen him pushed without complaint to the
right wing, where he began his career with Utrecht.
