Jens Lehmann – Gracious As Ever
Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, probably the greatest whinger of all time (sorry Carlsberg), has come out and accused Italian referee Roberto Rosetti of being biased against the Germans in last Sunday’s Euro 2008 final in Vienna against Spain.
Although the eccentric ‘keeper has admitted the best side won on the day, he was far from happy with the Italian whistle-blower.
Lehmann moaned that this was the third time he had suffered from “dodgy” refereeing in European cup finals and pointed out two incidents during the game with Spain (which the German’s lost 1-0, incidentally).
The first incident he describes is one that we have to admit we agree with and was when Spanish midfield kingpin David Silva appeared (well, not appeared but did) to head-butt Lukas Podolski but got away without so much as a caution, and the second one happened right at the end of the match when Lehmann reckons a great attacking position for the Germans was thwarted by a “non-existent” foul.
But for all his griping, the veteran goalkeeper grudgingly admitted that the final result was fair and that the Spanish were deserving of their first European Championship win since way back in 1964.
Lehmann shouldn’t have been really surprised though as most people couldn’t even believe his team had reached as far as they did in the competition because the football they played was, well… rubbish! That coupled with the fact that Spain arrived at the match having won their previous eleven games and were unbeaten in the previous twenty-one.
The German number one refused to lay any blame at the feet of team-mate Philipp Lahm for the goal that settled the match. The defender was turned inside out by the pace of Liverpool forward Fernando Torres for the 33rd-minute goal, but Lehmann said that he himself was not the kind of person to blame others (??). OK Jens, only when it comes to the referee then!
At thirty-eight years of age this may very well have been Lehmann’s last Euro finals but he has so far refused to give any indication as to what his future plans may be. We think that it could be a good time for him to go. After all, only someone who is getting on in years could possibly be delusional enough to think that the referee was biased in the final!
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