If I were Arene Wenger...

... I'd killed the referee!!!

Friday May 19, 12:15 AM Champions League ref admits: I should have played advantage The Norwegian referee in charge of Wednesday's Champions League final in Paris has admitted he was wrong to send Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann off in the first half. In the 18th minute of the final which Barcelona won 2-1 Lehmann committed a blatant professional foul against Barca striker Samuel Eto'o just outside the penalty area. As Eto'o crashed to the ground, his team-mate Ludovic Giuly took possession of the ball and scored. But referee Terje Hauge elected not to play advantage, blowing his whistle instead as soon as Eto'o was fouled. So from a position where it could have been 1-0 to Barcelona and a yellow card for Lehmann, it was a free-kick on the edge of the area - from which Barca's Ronaldinho did not score - and a red card for the German keeper. "With the benefit of hindsight, I must admit that I should have waited before blowing the whistle," Hauge told NRK public radio on Thursday. "I should certainly have waited to see where the ball was going. "Four or five seconds after I blew the whistle, the ball was in the goal. But since I had already whistled, I had no choice. So the goalkeeper got the red card and Barcelona a free kick," he said. Hauge said his prompt whistle was explained by the fact that he was "tense and very attentive". "It would have been best to wait a few seconds. If I had done that, I could have given the goal and shown the yellow card," he told the Dagbladet newspaper. "In other circumstances I might have acted differently, but this depends essentially on where one is positioned," he added. "Of course it was a big match for Arsenal and to lose is very disappointing. I understand they are frustrated. But let's give them a few days and we can discuss more reasonably," he told Dagbladet. Hauge's performance has been strongly criticised by the press in Lehmann's home country, Germany, and by the Arsenal side, who claim that Barcelona's actual first goal, an equaliser, should have been disallowed due to an offside position. "It is clear that in matches which are this important there are always things open for discussion," Hauge said. "But at the end of the day, we have no reason to be too dissatisfied."

Copyright ? 2006 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses. Copyright ? 2006 Yahoo! Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved.