{"id":5008,"date":"2026-04-15T04:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/5008\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T04:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:21:24","slug":"barcelonas-raphinha-slams-refereeing-after-champions-league-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/5008\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona’s Raphinha slams refereeing after Champions League exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Barcelona forward Raphinha criticized the refereeing after Barcelona\u2019s elimination<\/a> against Atletico Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Champions League on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Raphinha, who didn\u2019t play because of a hamstring injury<\/a>, also gestured toward Atletico fans after the game, apparently indicating that the team will be eliminated in the next round. He also made a \u201crobbed\u201d sign with his hands toward the crowd at the Metropolitano stadium.<\/p>\n

Barcelona won 2-1 on Tuesday but it wasn\u2019t enough to overcome a 2-0 loss at home<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it was robbed,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cNot only this match, but the other one as well. The refereeing was very bad. Incredible the decisions that they made. Atletico made a lot of fouls and the referee didn\u2019t show a single yellow card.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barcelona had Pau Cubars\u00ed sent off in the first half of the opening game, and Eric Garc\u00eda was shown a red card on Tuesday in the 79th minute. <\/p>\n

Barcelona also complained of other refereeing decisions during both matches. It made a complaint to UEFA about a possible penalty in its favor in the first leg, and players complained of another penalty on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could understand the fear that they have to see Barcelona winning,\u201d Raphinha said.<\/p>\n

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick complained after the first game but said after the return leg that he wouldn\u2019t talk about the referees. He said his team deserved better luck after how it played.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see both matches … we were much better than Atletico,\u201d Flick said. \u201cBut at the end it\u2019s like that, and we have to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s next match is against Celta Vigo in the Spanish league. The Catalan club leads the league by nine points over second-place Real Madrid after 31 rounds.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Barcelona forward Raphinha criticized the refereeing after Barcelona\u2019s elimination against Atletico Madrid in the quarterfinals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[179,92,3469,223,1743,396,3468],"class_list":{"0":"post-5008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-atletico-madrid","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-eric-garca","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-officiating"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}