It’s less than 24 hours to the kick-off at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, and the media coverage has been intense these last days. I have followed the news after UEFA announced Lubos Michel as the referee for the game, thinking I would write a small post on the reactions to the appointment. What seems to be the main focus of the newspapers are very clear, they remember the 2005 Champions League semi-final between Liverpool and Chelsea where the assistant referee Roman Slysko awarded Liverpool the goal who sent them to the final. It hasn’t been confirmed whether the ball did cross the line or did not cross the line, but the goal stands as controversial in the mind of Chelsea fans. Most of the newspapers seem to focus on this one incident that involved Chelsea when commenting on the appointment.
From guardian.co.uk:
“The ghosts of Champions League showdowns past were stirred for Chelsea yesterday when the referee and assistant who allowed Luis García’s contentious winner for Liverpool in their 2005 semi-final were announced as being two of the men in charge of the final with Manchester United tomorrow evening.”
From dailystar.co.uk:
“CHELSEA will be haunted by a blast from the past in Moscow tomorrow – “ghost goal” referee Lubos Michel.”
From setantasports.com:
“Slovakian referee Michel was the man in the middle when Luis Garcia scored his infamous ‘ghost goal’ when Liverpool dumped Chelsea out at the semi-final stage back in 2005.”
Also from setantasports.com, Arsene Wenger is apparently bitter after losing in the quarter-final:
“Every match is being decided on a referee’s decision and I wouldn’t put my house on a ref’s decision,” said Wenger.
The writer from International Herald Tribune seems more positive to Michel:
“The referee, Lubos Michel, is a 40-year-old former school teacher from Slovakia. He speaks fluent English and Russian; and, having traveled with him on an International Red Cross field visit to Sierra Leone, I can vouch for his impartiality and his singularity of purpose.”
