Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has strongly criticised the refereeing in his team's La Liga loss to Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou. The Catalan boss has stated that officials overlooked a clear penalty and a second yellow card opportunity for the visitors.
Barca’s Hansi Flick criticises referring decision in UCL loss to Atletico Madrid
Speaking after Barcelona's 2-0 loss, Flick expressed frustration over key decisions that he believes favoured the opponents unfairly or failed to punish Atlético appropriately. He said:
“There was a clear penalty and a second yellow card for Atléti”.
Flick added:
“What's the point of VAR if it's there in the first place? I just can't understand that”.
The comments come amid a heated fixture where Barcelona failed to maintain their position at the UCL table at home. Flick highlighted incidents involving potential penalties and card decisions that VAR did not intervene on decisively.
Flick also stated that he was not sure if “it was a red card for Pau Cubarsí”. Meanwhile, Julian Álvarez opened the scoring with a superb free-kick in the 45th minute, shortly after Barcelona's Cubarsí was sent off. Alexander Sørloth added a second goal in the 70th minute to give Diego Simeone's side a commanding advantage heading into the second leg.
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