Players of both sides were left fuming with the officials after Flamengo"s 1-1 draw with Cruzeiro in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night, with Flamengo scoring after an apparent handball before later seeing a goal disallowed.
Despite the evening-out of the decisions, players of both sides were disappointed with the outcome and made their feelings known to the media.
Liédson, who saw his second-goal of the night disallowed for offside, bemoaned the officials costing Flamengo the opportunity to pull further away from the relegation zone.
“Football is like this, it"s not always the best team that wins. We slipped-up and it"s these small details we need to correct," the Portugal international told reporters.
“It was wrong [to disallow the goal]. It"s human to make mistakes, but this disallowed goal cost us points in the league table."
Cruzeiro"s players were equally disappointed, with their complaints directed at the decision to allow Liédson"s opening goal, which appeared to feature a handball from Vagner Love in the build-up.
“We spoke to the referee after Liédson"s goal and tried to explain that he used his hand. Unfortunately, he didn"t change his mind," centre-back Léo complained.
Goalkeeper Fábio presented a similar tale: “We told the referee that the ball had hit Vagner Love"s hand, but I think he hadn"t seen it. But, we needed to be patient."
However, the Cruzeiro No. 1 was quick to stress that he felt the officials were correct to disallow the second Flamengo effort for offside, with both teams predictably only seeing their side of the arguments.
