Barcelona’s exit from the Champions League quarter-finals was “a robbery”, their forward Raphinha says.
They had a player sent off in each leg of their 3-2 aggregate defeat by Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid, with their 2-1 win on Tuesday not enough to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first game.
In both cases, a yellow card was upgraded to a red after the referee was instructed to review at a pitchside monitor the possible denial of a goalscoring opportunity.
Pau Cubarsi was dismissed by Istvan Kovacs in the first leg, and fellow Barca defender Eric Garcia was sent off by Clement Turpin in the second.
Kovacs was also criticised by Barca after he and video assistant referee Christian Dingert allowed play to continue when Atletico defender Marc Pubill handled the ball in his own penalty area.
Raphinha missed each game through injury but told reporters after the second leg: “For me, this match was a robbery. Not just this match but the other one as well.
“The refereeing was really bad, the decisions [Turpin] makes are unbelievable.
“I don’t know how many fouls Atletico made but the referee didn’t give them a single yellow card.
“I really want to understand why they’re so afraid that Barcelona will come and win.”
Atletico did not have a player booked in the second leg, while Barca received one yellow card as well as a red.
Pubill was one of three Atletico players booked in the first leg, when he stopped the ball with his hand after goalkeeper Juan Musso had appeared to restart play with a goal-kick.
Barca complained to Uefa over a “grave lack of VAR intervention” but European football’s governing body said on Tuesday that the club’s protest was “inadmissible”.
“It was tough, especially when you realise you have to work three times as hard to win the match,” added Raphinha, 29.
“I think this tie was quite misleading, in my view. I think everyone can make mistakes; everyone is human.
“But when the mistakes keep repeating themselves in exactly the same way, I think that’s something we need to pay attention to.”
When asked to respond to his comments, Uefa said that its disciplinary body will assess reports from Tuesday’s game before deciding on any next steps, including a possible charge for the former Leeds player.
Atletico keeper Musso said: “You can’t say this match was stolen from them; that’s ridiculous.
“They acted as if they should have had three penalties and we should have had four sendings-off. We won on the pitch, 2–0 away, and when you’re the last man back, you get a red card.”
