Marcus Rashford was furious with the presenter (Image: Dennis Doyle, Getty Images)
Barcelona have lodged a strongly worded complaint with UEFA after Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford and his team-mates criticized the refereeing in both matches of the Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid. The Catalan giants suffered a 2-0 defeat in their first meeting with a La Liga opponent at the Camp Nou, in which Pau Kvarsi was sent off in the 44th minute.
But Rashford took issue with the team’s refusal to give István Kovac what he believed was an obvious penalty and possible red card for Marc Poubil. The Atlético Madrid defender had already been shown a yellow for handling the ball he collected from Juan Musso, thinking it was not in play. Despite numerous protests from Barcelona, they were ultimately rejected by the authorities, prompting La Liga leaders to submit a formal objection to UEFA.
This was also rejected by the governing body, which responded with a statement: “Following the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg match between Barcelona and Atlético, Barcelona lodged a protest regarding the referee’s decision. The UEFA Administrative Ethics and Disciplinary Committee has declared the protest unacceptable.”
After the game, Rashford gave an interview to CBS Sports and aired his frustration at what appeared to be a blatant penalty in his team’s favor. Rashford, whose departure after this season remains uncertain, said: “For me it’s clear: it’s a penalty. It’s happened before and it’s always been given.”
“I don’t understand that call. People talk about common sense, but common sense itself tells us it’s a penalty. Our reaction reflects that, but so does the reaction of our own players. That’s important too. I’ve been in similar situations in games where the call was a penalty. After all, it’s hard not to complain when the call goes against you.”
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Rafinha also expressed concerns. (Image: Europa Press via Getty Images)
Barcelona, who traveled to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano on Tuesday, wasted little time in trying to equalize on aggregate, needing to overturn a 2-0 deficit. Lamine Yamal broke the deadlock just four minutes into the game, before Ferran Torres doubled the score on the night, making it 2-2 on aggregate with 20 minutes remaining.
However, Ademola Lookman shattered the dreams of Barça supporters around the world after a third of the game and restored Atleti’s overall lead. After a scoreless second half, Eric Garcia received his marching orders with about 10 minutes remaining, further compounding the visiting team’s misery.
And after being eliminated from the tournament 3-2 on aggregate, Rafinha wasted no time in criticizing the match officials for both games. In an interview with TNT Sport Brasil, he said: “To me, we were robbed.
“I don’t want to talk about the referee, but we played very well. I don’t know how many fouls they committed, but the referee didn’t give them any yellow cards. The referee was very bad in all the decisions he made.”
“What I really want to understand is by what standards Barça are refereed. I really want to understand the secret behind this fear that plagues people with the idea that Barça will win. Yes, we are all human and sometimes we make mistakes during a match. That is understandable, but for it to happen two games in a row? That is not normal. I don’t think the results of these two confrontations are fair.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona are preparing to lodge a further complaint with UEFA, with club president Joan Laporta also immediately condemning the particular ruling as “disgraceful”. “We lodged a complaint after the first leg and UEFA said it was ‘unacceptable’,” he told reporters.
“We will seek further explanation. The club will also lodge a complaint because what happened to us again on Tuesday cannot be tolerated.”
