Ref justice sets buoyant Pool on their way

THE now clichéd wonderful European nights, the Kop at full voice, the herculean performances, and the often-forgotten chaotic performances from officials.

Certainly the omens from another famous comeback are pretty good and the last time there were such bizarre goings on in his competition, Liverpool went all the way in 2001.

In the quarter-finals, with Liverpool leading Roma 2-0 from the first leg in Italy, they conceded to the Italians and were indebted to referee Jose Garcia-Aranda for their passage into the semi-finals, the official awarding Roma a penalty, even pointing to the spot, before thinking better of it.

This time it was the Bjorn Kuipers that came to their rescue. Still trailing 2-1 on aggregate and being outplayed by a Benfica side unbeaten, the Dutchman overruled his linesman to award Liverpool’s first. From Steven Gerrard’s corner, Sotirios Kyrgiakos ran across the ball before Kuyt, who was standing next to the goalkeeper, glanced in.

The linesman felt that Kyrgiakos had flicked the ball on, meaning Kuyt would have been offside but seemingly after discussing the matter with his fellow countryman Kuyt, and Fernando Torres, with manager Rafael Benitez losing the plot on the touchline, Kuipers gave the goal.

Kuyt said: “There was a bit of confusion, but it was a corner so it couldn’t be offside. The linesman thought someone on our team touched the ball on so it was offside but he changed his mind and we had the goal.”

Kuyt was able to strongly make his case to his fellow countryman. “The rules are the same in every country. It wasn’t offside, it was a goal.”

He added: “We just have to keep going. We’re in the semi-finals now, that’s what we want, to win some silverware so we’ll just keep going.”

With Tom Hicks looking on, the previous 25 minutes had certainly backed up the pleas of Benitez and Torres for extra investment as they failed to get near the confident and swaggering Portuguese.

Just eight minutes later, Gerrard slipped the ball through for Lucas, who broke away to get a second before Torres broke away for Liverpool’s third and Oscar Cardozo pulled Benfica back to 3-1 with a free kick.

But Torres finished off another counter attack to send Liverpool through to the semi-finals.

Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool can take “massive confidence” from the victory, and can go to Madrid and win their first silverware since 2006.

“It was a great night in the end,” Carragher said. “The first 20 minutes they played well, it was important not to concede and to get the first goal was massive in the game.

“In the Europa League we’ve beaten a very good side, a top team, and it’s a very good result.”

He added: “We can take massive confidence from this as they are flying in their league and next season will probably be in the Champions League.

“Before the draw was made they were the ones that everyone was trying to stay away from so this is a great result.”

Liverpool subs: Aquilani for Gerrard 88, El Zhar for Benayoun, 90; Ngog for Torres 86.

Benfica subs: Moreira for Cesar, 81, Kardec for Martins, 67, Coentrao for Aimar 86.