Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres has criticised UEFA for not paying attention to the referee's ability against Barcelona after he was sent off in the first leg of last night’s Champions League quarter-final. The former Liverpool and Chelsea man stunned the Nou Camp by scoring the first goal of the match, but soon turned from hero to villain when he received two quickfire yellow cards which left his side playing with 10 men for an hour.
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Two goals in 12 minutes from Luis Suarez helped a relentless Barcelona come from behind to win 2-1, but Fernando Torress believes the result should have been completely different as his fouls “shouldn’t have been cards”.
“If it had been the other way around then they wouldn’t have been given,” Torres told Cadena Cope.
“With 11 (men) we would have won without any doubt”.
The game was not without controversy from the very beginning as both teams were forced by UEFA to wear their away kits in order to avoid a colour clash. During the match, Luis Suarez was lucky to escape punishment after an apparent kick on Juanfran and an off the ball incident with Filipe Luis. Clearly frustrated by the referee’s inconsistency, Torres risked the wrath of UEFA by claiming German referee Felix Brych was not up to standard.
“UEFA worry about making us change shirts, but they didn't appoint a referee that is up to the level of the Champions League quarter-finals,” he said.
Torres was not the only Atletico player to express his discontent with the referee, with Filipe Luis saying, “I don’t know what Barca players have to do to get sent off just like us.”
“You can tell there is a fear that Barca will be eliminated,” he said.
Although Atletico manager Diego Simeone backed the criticism made by his players, he was understandably more composed while speaking to the media.
“There were more than two incidents involving Suarez, I can’t say what I think but I am not angry with Fernando for sure,” he said. “We had a great first-half, in the second we tried to limit the damage as much as possible for the game that is still to come”.
Barcelona will head to the Calderon on April 14 for the 2nd leg of the fixture where they will try and hold onto their one goal advantage. A goal from Atletico would see them go ahead on the away goal rule.
Barcelona saw their record of 39 games unbeaten come to an end on Saturday when they lost 2-1 to Real Madrid during El Clasico. The result saw Atletico move within six points of Barcelona in La Liga with seven games to go.
