Rafa Benitez has finally admitted that he celebrated – well just a little bit – at the end of the game on Wednesday night after Newcastle scored two goals in the last 90 seconds of stoppage time to turn a potential 3-2 defeat into a 4-3 win against Norwich.
Celebrating is nothing new for Rafa because we remember he also celebrated – well just a little bit – when Liverpool won the Champions League way back in 2005 – and we have evidence.
That’s after Liverpool had been 3-0 down to AC Milan at half time in what is the greatest come-back in Champions League history.
🙂
Rafa Benitez shown celebrating back in 2005
Note how shocked Steven Gerrard looks
Rafa tends to be very cool and calm at the end of every game whether we lose, win or draw and he also analyzes the game in his post match interviews and rarely used any excuses.
He did the same thing on Wednesday night but he has revealed that he did celebrate a little bit.
To put this in context that’s when our fans and players and other fans around the world were going crazy.
Here’s what Rafa said:
“Every year, every game, every stadium is different, but to feel the fans here when you are scoring goals and winning games like that is amazing,”
“I was not jumping, but I was there in the middle. “I think that we deserved to win, and we certainly deserved to be ahead easily in the first half, against a good team.”
“In the second half, it was incredible that we could be losing 1-3.” “We made one mistake for the penalty, and then another one or two mistakes in the second half.”
“But still the team was reacting and pushing.” “They played five at the back and dropped off a little bit, and we were able to attack more.”
“And then all the bad luck we had in the first half became good luck in the second half. In the end, I think that we deserved to win.”
“Yes, I celebrated a little bit. Normally I am fairly calm, but I was celebrating in the middle of the pitch with the players and with the fans.”
“I try to stay calm because I know there are still a lot of months to play, and we still have to improve little things we need to improve.”
“I was not jumping, but I was there in the middle.”
OK – so that Aleksandar bear-hug – shown below – does not qualify as a jump?
But his feet are off the ground – maybe a forced jump?
OK – we’ll settle for Rafa saying he celebrated – that’s enough in itself.
🙂
Comments welcome.
2 comments so far
Jail for Ashley
Sep 30, 2016 at 9:25 AM
Comment #1I thought he was going to reveal he got drunk after the game and got a toon badge tattooed on his leg.
SA Toon
Sep 30, 2016 at 10:00 AM
Comment #2Still buzzing after Wednesday night, but we have to keep it all together tomorrow. The stats suggest we should take the game at a canter, but we’ve seen too many of those games go pear shaped for us in the past. If we can get three points tomorrow and hopefully start pulling away from some of the chasers in the table we will be nicely set up for the international break. Come on lads!!