Babel red baffles Rafa

Benitez: Surprised by red card

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Rafa Benitez admits it is 'difficult to understand' why Ryan Babel was sent off in Liverpool's 2-1 Europa League defeat by Benfica.

Babel was dismissed just after the half-hour mark in Lisbon after putting his hand in the face of Benfica defender Luisao, who had just committed a poor challenge on Fernando Torres.

Liverpool were leading at the time of the incident and Reds boss Benitez felt Luisao's tackle on Torres was a more serious offence than the one which led to Babel's red card.

"I was surprised because a foul from behind is more serious for me," said Benitez.

"I would like to analyse the foul before. And after, when one player is shouting in front of the referee after he already has a yellow card.

"It is a big difference when you kick a player from behind to a player touching another in the mouth.

"It's difficult to understand and impossible to change so we have to move forward and think about Anfield and our fans behind the team.

"Always when decisions are made against your team, you don't like it. But you cannot change it and the only way now is to try to be positive and think about our fans behind the team and playing with 12 men at Anfield."

Good result

Oscar Cardozo scored two second-half penalties to earn Benfica a first-leg victory, but Benitez remains confident Liverpool can reach the semi-finals of the competition.

He added: "It is half-time for us. We have one more game and we have to be confident we can progress.

"The performance was good as we played for 60 minutes with 10 players. I am disappointed because we had some chances and could have done better.

"We knew Benfica are a good team with quality and pace and they were dangerous.

"To concede two goals to two penalties and have one goal disallowed is disappointing, but still it is a good result."

Benitez also explained his decision to bring off Torres and captain Steven Gerrard in the final stages of the game despite Liverpool trailing.

"Both were really tired and we needed some fresh legs," he said. "Yossi and Ngog were doing their jobs because it was not easy to keep the tempo. They were attacking and had to go back.

"You can see from the chance of Fernando he was really tired."