Uefa Champions League Final: Referee Terje Hauge last night retracted his admission that he might have been too hasty in disallowing Ludovic Giuly's "goal" for Barcelona and sending off Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann after he took down striker Samuel Eto'o in Wednesday night's Champions League final.

Lehmann was dismissed after 18 minutes for tripping Eto'o when through on goal, with Norwegian referee Hauge whistling for the foul before Giuly converted the loose ball. Arsenal's players, and Thierry Henry in particular, argued that the referee should have played advantage and allowed the goal to stand with Lehmann remaining on the pitch, before pin-pointing other perceived shortcomings in his display.

Hauge had told the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet that, in hindsight, he might have shown more leniency. "Under other circumstances I would perhaps have done something different," he said. "I would have liked to have taken a few more seconds before making my decision. If I had done that, I could have given the goal and a yellow card as well."

Yet some 24 hours later Hauge insisted he was standing by his ruling. "If we had waited three, four or five seconds more we could have accepted it as a goal but I don't regret the decision," he stressed. "I had to make a choice from my position. We can talk about it now but I made the decision on the spur of the moment."

Uefa concurred, backing the referee, who will not officiate at the World Cup finals. "He saw a clear foul in a split second and he whistled because how does he know the ball is going to go in?" argued Uefa's director of communications William Gaillard.

"It's a very difficult decision to make. Perhaps if he had waited half a second more we could have had a different outcome. But, technically, he was right and his performances have been very good all season."

While Arsene Wenger understood the referee's thinking, he blamed the officials for allowing Eto'o's equaliser even though TV replays are inconclusive as to whether he was offside.

Henry will not face disciplinary action for his suggestion the referee might as well have been "wearing a Barcelona shirt". "No action will be taken," Gaillard added.