"I told the referee that he was a disaster; he marked the tie"

Despite taking the lead, Barcelona said goodbye to the Champions League after losing 1-4 to PSG in Montjuic in a match that was marked by the sending off of Ronald Araujo in the first half when the game was 1-0 in favour of the Catalans.

After the match, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez was very critical of the refereeing of Istvan Kovacs, who also sent him off during the second half for protesting one of his decisions. The Catalan did not bite his tongue and pointed to the referee as the main responsible for the 'Cule' defeat.

"For me it's too much to give Araujo a red card for that play. That's where the tie was decided. It's a play that marks the game and changes everything," said Xavi on the 'Movistar Liga de Campeones' microphones before pointing the finger more directly at Kovacs when explaining his sending off.

"I told him he was a disaster. He didn't understand anything. He has completely marked the tie. It's a shame that the work of a season is finished because of a refereeing decision," explained the Egarvian.

Xavi explained the reasons why Lamine Yamal was replaced by Inigo Martinez after Araujo's red card. "There was the option of Pedri, who was coming back from injury, but we wanted to have a bit more control with 10 players and that's why I took Lamine off. I had Raphinha, Pedri, Lewandowski, who was our reference up front...", he argued before lamenting the chances his team had despite being a player down. "We could have equalised through Gundogan and even before that we could have made it 2-0 through Robert, but with 10 players it's very difficult," he argued.

Finally, without being as blunt about his future as on other occasions, Xavi sent a message of encouragement for what is to come. "I am not the protagonist. Barca will come back and try again next year," he said.

 

April 16, 2024