Petr Cech calls for video referee after Chelsea loss

Petr Cech has urged Uefa to introduce video replay technology to assist referees at contentious moments, after what he described as the "unbelievable" decisions taken by Tom Henning Ovrebo during Chelsea's Champions League exit.



Chelsea crashed out to Andrés Iniesta's 90th-minute away goal for Barcelona in Wednesday night's semi-final second-leg, before which the Norwegian referee had denied Chelsea on three occasions. After Iniesta's goal, Ovrebo would ignore a fourth strong appeal from Chelsea.

In the other semi-final the previous evening, Manchester United's Darren Fletcher was sent off by Italian referee Roberto Rosetti for a professional foul on Arsenal's Cesc Fábregas, even though replays showed that he had taken the ball with his tackle. Fletcher will be suspended for the final against Barcelona in Rome.

"Uefa should consider the incidents which have happened in the two semi-finals," said Cech, "and realise that with the implementation of video referees, they could not ever have happened.

"Our defeat is a huge regret for all of us because the team's efforts over the season have been lost. We were the better side during the whole match and we should have succeeded but because of unbelievable decisions from the referee and, of course, Iniesta's beautiful goal, we have been knocked out.

"We had some chances to score and four times we were entitled to a penalty kick. I do not understand why they were not given by the referee standing 10 metres from the place of the incident."