"I haven't seen Ngog having any problems in any training session, in any game, diving," the Liverpool manager said. "He is a very honest player, a young player with quality and a good mentality. I could name 20 players who have these problems but not Ngog."
I think it will be a massive mistake [if he is labelled a diver now]. There are bad tackles every week which are more dangerous for the integrity of the players than this situation. It is a situation you can see in a lot of games."
Henry's intervention in the World Cup play-off has taken the spotlight off Ngog but also intensified the debate on cheating, although Benítez denies there is any similarity between the two. He said: "There is a massive difference between being the target of a tackle that makes you jump and you fall over and touching the ball with your hand. It is totally different."
Benítez concedes that Ngog dived but claims that the referee, Peter Walton, was nevertheless correct to award the penalty. "Ngog knows it was a bad situation," the Liverpool manager said. "But he was running and trying to score and he could see a player going to the ground, he needed to jump. To try that tackle is a foul with the rules. After we can see the replays and talk about video technology but at that moment everyone thought it was a penalty. After watching the replay I could see a player going to ground, trying to tackle one of our players and our player jumping, diving, but at the time it was a penalty."