Henry questions referee

Thierry Henry was far from happy with the referee after Arsenal's defeat to Barcelona.

Arsenal captain Thierry Henry was far from happy with the referee after Arsenal's UEFA Champions League final defeat to Barcelona.

After having Jens Lehmann sent off early in the first half, Arsenal went ahead through Sol Campbell.

But second half strikes from Samuel Eto'o and Juliano Belletti handed the Catalan giants victory.

Henry refused to blame match referee Terje Hauge for defeat, but he was less than pleased with his performance.

"I think we can be proud of ourselves and I don't want to start any arguments, but I don't know whether the referee had a Barcelona shirt on or something - in the first half they kicked me all over the place," he told Sky Sports.

"They are not used to the pace of The Premiership or maybe the desire, I thought they were harsh - I told the ref, 'If you don't want us to win it, just tell us from the start.'

"I don't think he cost us the final, you can't say that because we were one-nil up, and you know against a team like Barcelona - doing what we did for a very long time was more than difficult, but on the other side - next time I might learn how to dive maybe, they tried to kick me in my knee, from behind on my ankle but I am not a woman so I try and stay on my feet - but I always expect the ref to do his job, but today he didn't.

"At the end of the day they [Barcelona] can be happy, but we have played at ten for the whole game."

Henry insists that Swedish legend Henrik Larsson changed the game as he had a hand in both Barca goals.

"People always talk about Ronaldinho, and everything but I didn't see him today - I saw Henrik Larsson," he said.

"Two times he came on - he changed the game, that is what killed the game - sometimes you talk about Ronaldinho and Eto'o and people like that, you need to talk about the proper footballer who made the difference and that was Henrik Larsson tonight because I didn't see no Ronaldinho or no Eto'o or a proper referee also."

The French international again refused to be drawn on his future.

"I said I didn't think about it, I will start to think about it tonight," he said.

"I am just upset about the match we did - I can't complain about Jens's sending off, I am sure if you look at the game again Puyol should have got a yellow card, so many times Marquez came from behind to take my ankle and he didn't get a yellow card and I am sure if you are playing against me with a yellow card it is not the same game anymore.

"But we can be proud of what we did, I am upset for the Arsenal fans who came - but at the end of the day we made ourselves proud and the English game proud and I am a just a bit strange, but you know that is how it is."