Euro 2008 - Lehmann blames "biased" referee
Eurosport - Mon, 30 Jun 15:54:00 2008
Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann branded referee Roberto Rosetti "arrogant" and "biased" after losing the Euro 2008 final 1-0 to Spain.
While his coach Joachim Loew was gracious in defeat and admitted Spain deserved to win, Lehmann highlighted Rosetti's refusal to send off midfielder David Silva for a mini-headbutt on Lukas Podolski.
"He was very arrogant and in my opinion he was biased. He clearly saw a head-butt from a Spanish player towards Lukas Podolski, he didn't book him or give him a red card.
"Just before the end we had a good chance in the penalty area and all of a sudden he gave a foul against us where even the Spanish players were surprised to get a free-kick. It was very disappointing."
The 38-year-old, who has signed for Stuttgart from Arsenal, said he had not decided whether to retire from international football but would not continue until Euro 2012.
"That's my last Euro match," he said.
"I don't want to talk about anything else. I have to digest this disappointment first. You can imagine if I make any other decisions I'll tell the coach and the other players first."
Lehmann was the hero in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final win over Argentina on penalties but then conceded two late goals in the semi-final to tournament winners Italy.
The keeper also tasted disappointment in the 2006 Champions League final when his Arsenal side lost to Barcelona and he was sent off early on.
He refused to blame left-back Philipp Lahm for the winning goal, after the pair hesitated allowing Fernando Torres to reach a Xavi through-ball.
"I think when you lose 1-0, you always regret certain situations in the game and you are always saying 'if only I had done this, and done that'.
"That's a big disappointment as a player, particularly in my case because that was my last European Championship game and I can't reverse that, it's done," he added.
Loew said he had not talked with Lehmann about retirement, adding: "I didn't speak with him about that. I said 'congratulations you did very well'."
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LOL! Well he's a very gracious loser isn't he? I guess he conveniently forgot the fact that the ref let Ballack get away with four (at least on my count) malicious tackles where he was nowhere NEAR the ball. What about the ref booking Torres for an imaginary foul when he clashed heads with another player (his elbow was nowhere near the other player) Or What about booking Iker when he was just trying to stop the fight??! Please...the better team won, end of story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Germany should never have been in the final, never. They rode their luck...and I'm glad it finally ran out!!!
