Thierry Henry consoles Jens Lehmann. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty
He is being hailed this morning as a tragic figure who might just have stepped from a Wagnerian opera. The German papers today expressed their sympathy with Jens Lehmann, whose "moment of madness" in the Champions League final between Arsenal and Barcelona led to him being sent off in the 18th minute, ultimately leading to Arsenal's 2-1 defeat.
The papers all agree that Lehmann deserved to be punished after plucking at the boot of Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o. But there was criticism also in Germany of the Norwegian referee's decision to give Lehmann the red card. "The cleverest decision of referee Terje Hauge would have been to give the advantage and allow the goal for Barcelona - and to have warned Lehmann, the German number one," the Berliner Zeitung wrote this morning. It added that Lehmann's sending off "decimated" his team, a fate that Arsenal had not really "deserved".
Speaking to Bild, Germany's bestselling tabloid, Lehmann, admitted last night that he had been in the wrong. "I arrived a second too late - that was my mistake and I was punished. I thought it was offside and I grabbed him. Unfortunately, it wasn't. At the moment I can't look forward. I'm just disappointed."
Speaking to Germany's N24 TV, he added: "I thought he (the referee) would send me off. I didn't think the game was over. You can win with 10 men. But it's difficult."
Bild described how Lehmann - who is expected to play in goal for Germany in next month's World Cup - had "crept off the pitch with his head sunk". It had been a "horror final" for Lehmann, the paper said. The German papers also speculated on whether Lehmann's disastrous night would adversely affect Germany's performance in the World Cup.
The German team is currently relaxing at a luxury training camp in Sardinia. This morning Germany's team manager Oliver Bierhoff said he would give Lehmann three days' rest before inviting him to fly out and join the rest of the team at the seaside resort. Other commentators were more phlegmatic. They suggested that Lehmann would soon recover from the setback. "It's a daily business, football," Rainer Holzschuh, the editor of the football magazine Kicker, said. "In four or five days it will all be forgotten."
