What’s the story?
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique believes his side are suffering from unfavourable treatment from referees compared to arch-rivals Real Madrid. Barca lost 2-1 at Athletic Bilbao in a Copa Del Rey last-16 first-leg game on Thursday. Pique and Neymar had penalty appeals turned down while Athletic forward Aritz Aduriz, who scored the first and made the second goal, escaped a red card for striking Barca defender Samuel Umtiti.
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Athletic ended the game with nine men as Raul Garcia and Ander Iturraspe both earned second yellow cards, but Pique still criticised the performance of referee David Fernandez Borbalan.
"We want to play football and not roulette, which is what this type of refereeing provokes. The penalty claims by Neymar and me are clear but we already know how this works," Pique told reporters.
"We all saw what happened in Madrid's game with Sevilla, I hope referees improve their standards."
In case you didn’t know...
Barcelona star Gerard Pique has been a pretty outspoken critic of arch rivals Real Madrid. The Spain international, who has a reputation for stoking the long rivalry between Barca and Real, also complained that Zinedine Zidane's side had a soft penalty awarded in their 3-0 win over Sevilla on Wednesday.
This is not the first time Pique has spoken out against Real Madrid and these comments are sure to receive a stinging response from the Madrid fans.
The heart of the matter
Although Athletic Bilbao had 2 men sent off, Barcelona and Gerard Pique still felt that many of the decisions went against them in their fiery Copa Del Rey encounter. Most notably, a strong penalty appeal by Neymar was turned down which led to Pique making these unsavoury comments.
What’s next?
Barca have been the scourge of Athletic in the last two King's Cups, beating the Basques in the 2015 final and knocking them out at the quarter-final stage last season but they face elimination unless they can turn the tie around next Wednesday.
Also, Pique might face some action from the Spanish football federation for his comments and could face a retrospective ban.
Sportskeeda’s take
While Barcelona might have been frustrated by last night’s loss against Athletic Bilbao, Gerard Pique has no right to mouth off against the referees who were just trying to do their job.
Such comments are in poor taste by the Barcelona centre-back and he should instead focus on improving his and the team’s performances in the second leg.
