http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2009/05/07/1251450/cl-special-there-is-no-barcelona-chelsea-conspiracy-guus-hiddinks
Of the five incidents that Chelsea have complained about, only one was a penalty – the clear handball by Gerard Pique. Dani Alves’ obstruction on Florent Malouda may have been inside the area, but obstruction is only a penalty offence when it is really serious, and this was not. The same can be said for Eric Abidal’s slight pull of Didier Drogba’s shirt before half time, which preceded a one second delay before the Ivorian catapulted himself onto the floor like he’d caught the plague.
In the episode involving Drogba and Yaya Toure on 56 minutes, both players were wrestling each other, and even if Kolo’s younger brother did draw back the Chelsea hitman, it was well outside the area. When the two players entered the box, Toure won the ball with a fair tackle. Finally, regarding Michael Ballack’s last-gasp appeal against Samuel Eto’o, the Cameroonian may have had his arm higher than usual, but it was clearly ball-to-hand (the very top of his arm and back), while he also had his back turned. FIFA’s ‘Laws of the Game’ are crystal clear on this.
It is amusing that Chelsea have conveniently overlooked the fact that Abidal was wrongly red carded on 65 minutes for a ‘professional foul’ when Anelka had tripped over his own feet. This forced Barcelona to chase the last 25 minutes of the game with just 10 men. As a result the space opened up for Chelsea on the counter-attack, and it was only after this dismissal that the stonewall Pique penalty incident occurred. It is also peculiar how Chelsea have discarded the performance of referee Wolfgang Stark in the first leg at Camp Nou.
During that game, Stark waved away an excellent Thierry Henry penalty shout, failed to send off Michael Ballack, and also harshly booked Carles Puyol, forcing Barcelona to start a left back at centre back, and a centre midfielder at left back last night.
