Dutch star Ryan Babel reveals his only Liverpool red card was due to ‘Van Persie style provocation’
Ryan Babel was only sent off once during his time at Liverpool which is not a bad disciplinary record when you consider he played 146 times for the Premier League outfit.
Babel’s sole red card came in the 2010 Europa League clash against Portuguese giants Benfica.
The Dutch winger revealed that the reason he saw red was because of an incident that reminded him of Robin van Persie’s recent provocation against Besiktas defender Dusko Tosic in the Istanbul derby.
“It was my only red card for Liverpool, I don’t usually get involved in these kind of actions but Benfica’s captain Luisao did a dirty foul on Fernando Torres and then he provoked me, it was like what Robiin van Persie did, he pushed my buttons and got me sent off like Van Persie did to us,” Babel was quoted as saying by Eurosport.
The Reds ended up losing the first-leg clash in Lisbon 2-1 and finished the game with 10 men.
The Turkish Cup quarter-final clash between the Istanbul rivals ended with Fenerbahce winning 1-0 thanks to a goal from Robin van Persie.
Van Persie ended up putting on quite a show. The Dutch star reacted rather theatrically when Dusko Tosic touched his head.
To be fair Tosic gave the referee little choice to send him off but Van Persie’s reaction was worthy of an Oscar.
Van Persie then proceeded to wind up Oguzhan Ozyakup and gouded his former Arsenal teammate with his goal celebration.
Fenerbahce added to tension after releasing a t-shirt of the goal celebration. It was the final straw for Tosic’s wife Jelena Karelusa.
Karleusa had tweeted and later deleted: ‘R.van Persie is one stupid motherf***er. Brake [sic] a leg a**hole!’
The t-shirt incident broke her short lived silence and she released a t-shirt of her own depicting Tosic actually head butting Van Persie and shared it over social media.
