STEVEN Gerrard has called on UEFA to take disciplinary action against Porto after his Rangers players were struck with missiles as they celebrated a goal in their Europa League game in Portugal on Thursday night.
Connor Goldson and scorer Alfredo Morelos were hit by coins and cigarette lighters thrown by the home supporters just before half-time in the Estadio Drago in a Group G match which the Glasgow club drew 1-1.
Gerrard revealed he was disappointed that match official Nikola Dabanovic had failed to take action on the night despite being told what had happened by Goldson and shown the objects which came onto the pitch by the centre half afterwards.
However, the Liverpool and England great is hopeful that European football’s governing body, who have forced Rangers and other clubs across the continent to close sections of their grounds for offensive chants, come down hard on the Primeira Liga club.
“It's certainly something UEFA need to look into and see whether the Porto fans are guilty of that because we don't want to see it and it's dangerous,” he said. “There isn’t (any justification for it). And that is why there should be punishments and repercussions for it.
“Reading Connor’s interview, he said that he showed the coins and the lighter to the referee but he didn’t want to do anything about it and that is disappointing. That is what UEFA need to look at it. The referee has a responsibility to protect the players so I will be very interested to see if that is in the report.
“The fans are guilty of it. Connor is not going to make this up. He is not going to talk to the media and say he was hit by coins and a lighter and showed it to the referee if it didn’t happen. He is not making it up.
“The fact is that they are guilty, but we can’t do anything except hope that UEFA and the referee put it in their report. UEFA are normally pretty consistent so I will be interested to see what the outcome is.”
Gerrard praised his players for how they dealt with the incident and performed after a result which keeps alive their hopes of qualifying for the last 32 of the competition.
“They done the right thing which is to report it to the referee,” he said. “That is the protocol. They made him aware of it and it didn’t affect the performance for sure. The performance was faultless apart from one error.”
Gerrard, who only found out his players had been struck by objects yesterday, admitted his side may have gone over the top with their celebrations and revealed he will speak to them about how they react to goals in the future. However, he stressed his team had done nothing illegal.
“The rules are you're allowed to celebrate within the lines of the pitch, so the players haven't done anything wrong, but we maybe have to mention that just to not incite anything or have fingers pointed at us,” he said.
“More from a safety point of view I should speak to the players and tell them to be careful where they go to celebrate because at the moment, unfortunately, this is not the first time we've spoken about missiles coming on to the pitch.
“I was a corner taker so I've had a few coins bounce off me and had a lot of derogatory comments come my way. Unfortunately, it's the game. The game's moved forward in a lot of ways, it's not as bad as it used to be. But there are a lot of areas where it can be tidied up for sure.”
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