There was a time long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, when a Russian linesman was the star of English football. After Manchester United’s shock failure against Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday, English support for assistant referees from the land of Vlad and vodka is flagging.
In 1966 it was a Russian linesman who decided Geoff Hurst’s shot rebounded down over the line. It was a highly controversial decision, which secured the World Cup for England at Wembley against the old foe West Germany.
On Tuesday night, Moscow’s finest assistant referee Gennady Krasyuk decided that Paul Scholes was offside when he struck what looked like his second goal at Old Trafford.
Quite clearly, the little redhead was onside. There were, in fact, three men between him and the goalkeeper. United would have been two goals clear and laughing, especially with the away goal after the 2-1 defeat in Portugal.
Instead, the goal was disallowed, Benni McCarthy’s late free kick was pushed straight back in to play and a flapping Tim Howard and Francisco Costinha ended United’s hopes of reaching the quarterfinals for the eighth year running were shattered.
Poor old Sir Alex Ferguson must wonder why the footballing gods have deserted him after 12 years of many blessings.
Fergie complained: ‘Scholes’s goal would have put us in a very comfortable position at 2-0 up but then that’s football.
‘To be honest I couldn’t believe the linesman’s decision. You can understand it if there’s one defender, but when there are three, it’s hard to understand. You get shocked in life and I suppose you can’t see it coming. I felt we were in complete control. I think we deserved to win the match.â€
Chelsea had no such problems. They didn’t win, they didn’t need to. They got the 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge that saw them through against stolid Stuttgart and manager Caludio Ranieri said: ‘I wanted to play a little bit better than that, but it wasn’t possible. It was important for us not to concede. They only had one shot from distance.â€
Ugly and nervy it might have been, but at least the expensively assembled Blues are through. United would happily have settled for an ugly success on Tuesday.
Arsenal did it in style, scoring twice through Thierry Henry to cruise to a 2-0, 5-2 aggregate success against Celta Vigo.
Magic. Is the treble on? It certainly looks like it.
Favourites Real Madrid saw off Germany’s Bayern Munich in the tie of the round — locked 1-1 after the first leg at the Olympic stadium, the All Whites were all right thanks to Frenchman and Fifa world player of the year Zinedane Zidane’s volley from a Michel Selgado cross.
Madrid’s former South Africa coach Carlos Queiros told his multi-millionaire side to keep the ball and they did just that for most of the 90 minutes.
AC Milan enjoyed a comfortable 4-1 home win over Sparta Prague after the dour 0-0 away leg.
Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko scored two after Filippo Inzaghi’s first-half effort. The impressive Gennaro Gattusa added a late fourth.
Monaco came through on away goals against Lokomotiv Moscow.
But United apart, the shock of the week came with Italian giants Juventus cracking up 1-0 at home against Spaniards Deportivo La Coruna to lose 2-0 on aggregate.
So we’re left with Arsenal, Chelsea, Deportivo, Monaco, Porto, Lyon — who ousted fancied Real Sociedad — and the two heavweights, Real Madrid and AC Milan.
Expect some titanic quarterfinals next week.