Originally Posted by RS8MB0R8

Messi's one of the biggest cheats in the game IMO - you only need to type in "Messi" and "handball" into youtube and take a look at some of his antics. It's sad when such evidently gifted sportsmen/women have to resort to cheating to gain an edge over the opposition.

I was actually shouting at the TV at some of the decisions that went Chelsea's way last night. All players had to do was fall over and the game would be stopped - Chelsea picked up on this very quickly. I've never rated Cantalejo as a good enough referee to officiate games at this level and he didn't help his case in the game last night. One incident stands out a mile to me and that was in the second half where Chelsea hastily lofted a clearance from their box skywards and Anelka slowly backed himself into the Liverpool player (I think it was Alonso) that had taken up position beneath it, fell over and got a free-kick awarded. Alonso had the correct position but because Anelka backed into him and took a tumble, Chelsea relieved the pressure. It was so obvious, it almost happened in slow-motion due to the pause before the ball reached the pitch.

It was like that all night and Drogba was writhing around in apparent agony on a number of occasions and the incident that saw him roll back on to the pitch to get the game stopped should have seen him booked. It was a deliberate attempt to force the situation in Chelsea's favour. Fair enough, you can argue that the ref didn't need to stop the game but it's the intent of Drogba that is the annoying factor here, not the fact that the ref made just another of a number of bad calls.

I am a fan of neither side and as a neutral, I can honestly say that Chelsea had the benefit of about 90% of the contentious decisions yesterday. They disrupted the flow of the game and used that to their advantage. Bad refereeing IMHO.