Rafa: The linesman made a mistake

The former Valencia boss, was unhappy with the linesman after he awareded Bolton with a free kick on the edge of the box, after he tought Pepe Reina handled the ball outside his area.

Benitez said: “It’s clear that a mistake has been made. Pepe let go of the ball inside the area and then kicked it outside. The linesman was in a bad position. I knew at the time it was a mistake but what can you do?

“Every week we can talk about incidents but nothing changes. It’s annoying.

“Up until that point we were controlling almost everything, apart from a couple of long throws which you expect here. The first goal changed things and then we conceded the second too soon in the second half.

“In the last twenty minutes we started losing second balls and then playing too many long balls which don’t do anything.”