Rafa: We Deserved The Penalty

The Reds fell behind to an excellent first-half strike from Maxi Rodriguez and, despite their total dominance of possession, as the minutes ticked by it looked as though there would be no Kop comeback.

Then Steven Gerrard popped up - or rather, fell down. The skipper charged into the box to contest a bouncing ball and found himself on the floor after an innocuous brush with Mariano Pernia. However, much to the Atleti players' disgust, a penalty was awarded and Gerrard duly dispatched it to level the scores deep in stoppage time.

Benitez could not hide his annoyance at having to rely on a controversial call from the referee to earn a point at home, but he pointed out that his men suffered at the official's hands as well.

"We are disappointed because we needed the penalty at the end, but I think we deserved to score before that," the Spaniard told Liverpool's website.

"I thought we should have had a penalty earlier in the second half. It was clear they handled in the area."

Television replays suggested that Luis Amaranto Perea, Atletico's Colombian defender, did indeed flick the ball with his hand in his own penalty area. But neither Martin Hansson nor his assistants spotted it.

"If that would have been in the middle of the pitch then it would have been a free-kick, but it happened in the box and it was not a penalty," Benitez added.

Liverpool pressed their visitors deep throughout the second half, controlling the play through Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano in midfield while Steven Gerrard, Robbie Keane and Dirk Kuyt put together some lovely attacking moves which lacked only a clinical finish.

"We had some good chances, but they had one chance in the first half and scored from it," Benitez said.

"But it was really important for us not to lose today. OK, a win would be much better, but getting the point was very important because we are still near the top of the group.

"You could see that we were attacking and attacking, but they were very good in the counter-attack and had a lot of quality."

Both Atletico and Liverpool have tallied eight points from four Champions League games, with the Spaniards sitting top of Group D through goal difference.


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