A former Arsenal legend castigated one Atletico Madrid player over an incident during their defeat to Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Despite only two yellow cards being shown across the 90 minutes, there was a feisty undercurrent to the game as the visitors and their head coach Diego Simeone indulged in no little gamesmanship, helped in part by the complicit refereeing of Davide Massa.
One Spanish columnist bafflingly accused the Reds of being excessively physical last night, and he conveniently ignored a first-half incident that Freddie Ljungberg wasn’t afraid to call out.
Shortly before half-time, Atletico defender Cristian Romero caught Alexander Isak late with his studs, with the Liverpool striker momentarily going to ground and then being ordered off the pitch for 60 seconds, in accordance with a rule change introduced this year.
Speaking as a pundit on Viaplay, Ljungberg wasn’t one bit impressed with the Argentine’s challenge ash he raged (via Expressen): “It would have been nice if Liverpool had a [Patrick] Vieira or someone who could have crushed Romero with his style of play. I’m not that impressed.”
The ex-Sweden international added: “I live in England. I watch an incredible amount of English football and have seen him [Romero] at Spurs. This isn’t an accident. He does this on purpose, and the referees don’t get it. I think it’s a shame.
“In the good old days, he wouldn’t have been able to play like that. Back then, he’d have been given such a beating.”
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Ljungberg was right to be appalled by Romero’s over-the-top challege on Isak, for which the Atletico defender was very lucky to avoid a yellow card, and the 28-year-old has a reputation for ill discipline during his previous time in English football.
He was sent off six times in five years at Tottenham Hotspur, and coincidentally one of those red cards came in the fixture which saw Liverpool’s number 9 suffer a broken leg last December (when he was taken down in the penalty area by Micky van de Ven).
His tackle on the Swedish forward last night was the sort of snide one that footballers hate, rather than a full-blooded duel for possession where contact is inevitable.
Thankfully, Romero’s compatriot Alexis Mac Allister deservedly won the points for the Reds with a sublime goal shortly after half-time, with Atletico returning home to Spain with a defeat to begin their Champions League campaign.
We just hope that their number 21 refrains from that kind of challenge in the future and that they’ll be sufficiently embarrassed by their gamesmanship at Anfield to clean up their act and let their football do the talking instead.
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Yes Romero is not the most pleasant of characters/and yes it was a deliberate attempt to injure Isak…but I like Ljunberg’s comment…“It would have been nice if Liverpool had a [Patrick] Vieira or someone who could have crushed Romero with his style of play. “… Yes Freddie we have needed that bone crushing tackler that takes no prisoners type number 6 in the middle for 4 seasons now….sometime/somewhere over the rainbow LFC will wake up and get one. YNWA
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