Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Scolari pleased with victory and Terry verdict

Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari has praised the Football Association for being brave enough to overturn John Terry's red card and proving referees are not 'Gods'.

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Joe Cole celebrates scoring the second goal.

Terry was dismissed at Manchester City by Mark Halsey for a professional foul last weekend but, after a protest, the England skipper will be allowed to face Manchester United at the weekend.

Scolari, after his team defeated Bordeaux 4-0 in the Champions League, said: "I am satisfied because it is the first time I am a coach when they changed the decision of the referee.

"I think only in England this would happen. In other countries the referee is the God.

"This time the referee said he made a mistake. For me it is a surprise, a positive surprise. The Football Association understand that the referee makes mistakes sometimes like you and me."

Scolari cruised to victory in his first game in Europe's elite club competition - with Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka grabbing the goals - but he was far from happy with the performance.

"We know that we made many mistakes in the second half," said the Brazilian. "We tried to attack without the ball and with no good connections. But most important for us is the result.

"It is important to start with a win because in this competition you never know what will happen. You see that Cluj beat Roma. That is a warning for us for the next game. It is important to win and if you play well that is better, but today we did not play every well.

"They make many mistakes when they have the ball. When you play in the Champions League and are winning 2-0 at half-time you need to work the ball and control the game. You don't need to win 5-0, it is still the same three points."

Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc, a World Cup-winning centre-back with France, was left to rue his side's poor defending.

He said: "When you look back and analyse the match you have to say we were up against a superior team but we showed them too much respect.

"Maybe we held back a little bit. We weren't aggressive enough. The scoreline says it all.

"When you fight as hard as we did to get in the competition you have to give more in terms of effort and commitment. We could have done more and given a better account of ourselves."

source: soccernet

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