Didier Drogba wasn't the only one enraged to the point of combustion by the performance of referee Tom Henning Ovrebo at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
Jamie Redknapp looked and sounded as if he was ready to don his flip-flops and storm on to the pitch in sympathy.
It wasn't just Ovrebo's refusal to agree to Chelsea's increasingly frantic penalty appeals that upset him, it was the fact the referee had the affrontery to be Norwegian. NORWEGIAN for goodness sake!
Redknapp's theory was that, as a Norwegian used to refereeing in his home country, Ovrebo would not have been used to the "pace and power" of a game of this magnitude.
The fact that he had already taken 21 European games was not mentioned.
"Why couldn't we have a had a top Italian referee?" wondered Redknapp.
Presumably this wouldn't be the kind of top Italian ref that sends off a player for making a fair tackle in his own penalty area, thereby ruling him out of a Champions League Final? Redknapp could not come up with another nationality that would have sufficed.
As Norwegians are out for being from a "small football country", presumably the French are too garlicky and the Germans too humourless.
Graeme Souness, who better than anyone conveys the expression of sustained disbelief which only headbutting can resolve, disagreed. He claimed that a referee from ANY country should have had the sense to hand victory to Chelsea via the penalty spot.
Either way, one can only hope Drogba eventually makes his way on to the pundits' sofa.
If his verdict on the game, delivered live and exclusively on Sky Sports on Wednesday, is any pointer, sitting on the fence is not his style.
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