Barcelona star urges UEFA to ‘look’ at CL semi-final referee with corruption hinted in shock interview
FC Barcelona star Pedri has urged UEFA to “look at” the referee of their Champions League semi-final second leg against Serie A giants Inter Milan.
Barcelona and Inter Milan produced an all-time great Champions League semi-final, with the Italian giants triumphing 7-6 on aggregate.
After the first leg ended 3-3, goals from Lautaro Martinez and Hakan Çalhanoğlu fired Inter Milan ahead on Tuesday night, before Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo and Raphinha for Barcelona to complete a remarkable turnaround.
This placed the La Liga leaders on the brink of the Champions League final, but Francesco Acerbi’s stoppage-time leveller and Davide Frattesi’s finish in extra-time sealed the victory for Inter Milan.
A couple of leading figures for Barcelona criticised Polish referee Szymon Marciniak after the game. They felt Acerbi’s goal should have been chalked off after VAR denied them a penalty with a foul on Lamine Yamal deemed outside of the penalty area, while Inter’s spot-kick was dubious.
Barcelona midfielder Pedri wants UEFA to “look at” Marciniak, as this is “not the first time this has happened with this referee”.
“It’s not the first time this has happened with this referee and I believe UEFA should have a look at it,” Pedri said.
READ: Barcelona, Inter bless us with Champions League classic as Yamal, Dumfries, Sommer all shine
“I think there are things I don’t understand and they are very hard to explain.
“There’s one incident with Lamine [Yamal] where I think [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan already had a yellow card. It was either a penalty or a foul. Either way it’s a clear yellow card and he should’ve been sent off.
“Honestly, I don’t understand it.”
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick was also critical of the referee, claiming “every 50-50 decision” went Inter Milan’s “way”.
“I don’t want to talk too much about the referee, but every decision that was 50-50 went (Inter’s) way,” Flick claimed.
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“I am disappointed, but not with my team. They tried everything. It’s the way it is. We are out, but next year we will try again to make the fans happy.
“It makes me sad… My team did an excellent job. I don’t like talking about the referee… I’ve told him what I think, but I’m not going to say it here what I’ve said…”
On his side’s development, Flick continued: “We’ll learn from this. It’s a progression. We want to keep learning. We don’t have much time to train now, but next weekend we are back. It’s normal to be disappointed.
“The team deserves the respect they have earned. We play to win, we want to win titles and we have LaLiga, with a very difficult match. We have a few days to prepare for this match.
“Each player, when they get home, can look in the mirror and be proud of themselves. We’ll analyse the game calmly and see what we can do.”
