Gilberto caught up in Alonso “cheat” claims
January 9, 2007
Did Gilberto foul Alonso?
Alonso denies ‘dive’ accusations
Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso insists he did not dive to win a penalty in the FA Cup loss by Arsenal.
Alonso was booked after going down over a Gilberto Silva challenge at 0-0 before the Gunners went on to win 3-1.
“I felt the contact, that is for sure,” said Alonso. “People who have watched it on TV have said it was a clear penalty and I felt that on the pitch.
“I was talking to the referee and Gilberto and I said to them there had been contact, that I didn’t cheat.”
He added: “I was trying to play with the ball and I fell down because of that contact – I was not cheating.”
Referee Steve Bennett immediately pulled out a yellow card for the Spanish midfielder and was only yards from the incident but Reds boss Rafael Benitez backed up Alonso.
“I felt it was a penalty early on when Xabi Alonso was brought down,” said Benitez.
“I was not happy with the yellow card for Alonso, the card was too quick. Sometimes you need to wait before making a decision that quickly.
“There was contact but it was not very clear. And if it is not clear then it should not be a yellow card.”
As an authority on the matter (…or not…), I can say that Gilberto did not foul Alonso. If Alonso was not in the penalty area, and Gilberto challenged Alonso in exactly the same way that he did, Alonso would not have fallen over. He went down under the ‘challenge’ because he was in the area. Alonso jumped up into the air, then decided to fall over, bent his legs, pointed his foot in the direction of Gilberto’s ankle to engineer a contact, then just fell to his knees after brushing Gilberto’s foot. Gilberto did not cause Alonso to fall over: Alonso caused Alonso to fall over. This means it was not a foul. It does not mean that it was a yellow card to Alonso though either; it just means that Alonso a fairy-boy, and that he must deal with this fact on a daily basis.