Wayne Rooney has assured Steven Gerrard he was fouled when earning England the controversial penalty which put them on the way to victory against Slovenia at Wembley.
Rooney has come in for heavy criticism from the Slovenian players for his part in the incident, which saw defender Bostjan Cesar limp off with an ankle injury, but Rooney told Gerrard his shirt was pulled by Cesar.
The Liverpool captain said: "Wayne seems to think his shirt was pulled. I asked him straightaway if there was any contact, and he said he got dragged back. I didn't get a good angle of it because I played the pass, but Wayne said there was contact."
Gerrard will be driven on by the hurt of England failing to make the 2008 Euro finals, after their 3-2 home defeat by Croatia, when the sides meet at Wembley in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier.
England would have two further games to ensure their place in South Africa if they suffered the worst-case scenario against Slaven Bilic's side, but Gerrard wants the job finished as quickly as possible.
He said: "We are getting into the habit of winning. Croatia will be a big test, and we have got a lot of respect for them - especially after the last time they performed at Wembley.
"But I think the players are still hurting from that result and performance, and we need to use that to motivate us to try and get the win on Wednesday. We've got to be motivated by that night.
"As a player you don't want that - to miss out on a big tournament. We have got a fantastic chance on Wednesday night to go to the World Cup.
"We don't want to go into the last two games needing results. It is very important that we get the job done straightaway.
"We are confident we can win the game on Wednesday night but we know it is going to be very difficult and we need to show Croatia a lot of respect. But, because of the rewards we can get out of Wednesday night, I am sure we will be motivated for that game."
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I dont think Rooney dived i think perhaps he had a dizzy spell, honesty is his second name we all know that.
That wasn't a dive. The wind blew him down. Ask Ronaldo and Drogba, they can attest to how strong the wind really blow.
It seems that Rooney not only a diver, but also a liar too...he is now better than CR9..surely
There was no dive, there was contact before the shirt pulling by both. But it should not have beem a penalty or Yellow Cards. Football is contact sport and if every claims "contact", well you all know this game would become.
Rooney just thank your lucky stars that you had one thing going for you. Should have put three in the net.
#16 'he was felled' is a perfectly legitimate use of the english language- look it up. Though at the same time you're right- he wasn't felled, he fell....
Two points.
Firstly, his shirt was being pulled, but he was also pulling the other players shirt as well, who started it the camera never told us.
Secondly, Gerrard, if you are picked to play on the left, either tell tyhe manager you won't play there or stay on the left for once, you always wander back into the central role leaving either a big gap or Rooney having to go over and fill that gap, meaning we then only have one player up front.
People like Les F, willfer_boy, and the rest of you who keep calling Rooney a diver, watch the incident again, his shirt was pulled, however the ref was wrong to give a penalty, but Rooney may have been right to claim one, depending on who started the shirt pulling. So yolu can all now climb off the bandwagon now.
He tells the biggest diver and cheat on the team. lol
I think we are forgetting that SHREK is from a make believe land, so yeah for him it was a foul and a penalty.
Pity the rest of us live with reality, the only foul was the one Rooney made on Caesar fro which the poor guy got booked and injured.
Man thats gotta suck when u get fouled, injured and then a cheat gets u booked after fooling totally incompetant refree
Go watch it again rooney then tell the truth
I am not saying that he dived but I am sure Rooney lost his balance without any assistance from the opponent. It was not a penalty and they were quite lucky to come away with a win.
#5 blogging is for people who are able to construct profound comments and frankly "he was felled" is not. you must be a Manure Utd supporter taking for pig rooney
If ref's gave a foul without the player having to fall over then mayb e players wouldnt hit the ground so easily. AS it is they only award a foul if the player is taken to the ground meaning you have to fall over to show there was a foul commited. Personaly I would prefer to have fouls given when there is a real foul and not just light contact but thats the stupid system we have.
Falling from light contact to draw a foul is not the same as throwing yourself on the ground with no contact and hoping to get a foul awarded anyway. That sort of diving should be punished harshly.
The penalty decision was refereeing at its worst and what about that clown of a linesman ( sorry assistant referee ) when he failed to see England keeper Green handle the ball outside the box. Of course England were the superior team and would still have been without any help from incompetant officials.
Retrospective video evidence shows that Rooney's shirt was pulled, therefore an offence had been committed that warranted a penalty, whereas with Eduardo's dive, no foul was committed and no contact made. Rooney simply went down to let the referee know his shirt had been pulled. If he had stayed on his feet, the defender would have got away with his foul, which cannot be right. OK it was a little cynical, but at the end of the day, the defender should not have been tugging Rooney's shirt in the penalty area. I would much rather all players stay on their feet rather than drop like they have been pole axed, but that would be giving an unfair advantage to the cheating defenders who always make a grab when the referee can't see. All players in every country do this. The only way it could be stopped would be video evidence during the match which would detract from the game.
Yes it was a dive, yes Rooney is @#$%, he missed so many clear chances if that was a Semi final his misses would of cost us the match, he is so over rated, only man-ure fans stick up for him, strange how they need two scousers to try and win something this season eh !!
I was at the game yesterday and I must say my initial thoughts were as follows:
1. Definitely didn't look like a penalty, though there did appear to be some contact.
2. When the whistle went, I thought the ref had given a foul against Rooney, either for a foul on the defender or for a dive.
3. When Rooney appealed, it looked at first like he thought the ref had blown against him and given Slovenia a free kick, and that's why he was appealing.
I must say the Slovenia fans were awesome. There were only a couple of thousand of them, but they were louder than the 65,000 or so England fans for the whole afternoon. They were very sporting, and there was a really good vibe in the stadium. Gutted Becks didn't play though.
Also,,,rooneys arms came up to claim a penalty,,,Edwardo's didnt...its on camera for all to see so all you man utd fans from around the country stop making yourselves look silly by defending him.
Take it like men and not like the greasy other diver who just left you!
liar liar !!! rooney made a foul than he dived, and now he is lying.what an idiot person he is !? he should be band for a year to make an example to all cheaters !!! he is no sportsman
Looks like Rooney dives at home as well with 'the thatch from the s.n.a.t.c.h on his forehead!
Bet he has video evidence of that as well!
Rooney dived,,,,he should get the ban Edwardo got!
the camera doesnt lie!
If It was'nt for rooney
you would be out of the W.Cup already u fools
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