Pellegrini blames referee for Barca defeat

Official accused of atoning for previous mishap in crucial fixture.

MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini risks a UEFA sanction after launching a scathing attack on the match referee after his side’s 2-0 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League.

Barcelona took charge of the last 16 tie thanks to a second-half penalty from Lionel Messi and a late Dani Alves strike at the Etihad Stadium in Tuesday’s first leg, and Pellegrini blamed match official Jonas Eriksson for his side’s defeat.



In a wide-ranging attack, Pellegrini accused Eriksson of making two mistakes over the penalty decision and even questioned why a Swedish official had been given control of the game.

He also said that Eriksson should not have been in charge because he had been criticised by Barcelona following his performance in their 0-0 draw at AC Milan in the quarter-finals of the 2011-12 competition.

Eriksson sent off City defender Martin Demichelis for bringing down Messi in the incident that yielded the 54th-minute penalty

“I think that the referee decided the game. Before the penalty there was the foul on (Jesus) Navas, when he (Eriksson) was three metres from the player, so he saw it without any problem,” he said.

“From the beginning I felt that the referee was not impartial to both teams. The penalty on Martin Demichelis was not a penalty, it was outside the box.”

“I think it was not a good idea to put a referee from Sweden in such an important match and a referee that made such important mistakes against Barcelona (in an earlier match).”

“This referee whistled the Barcelona-Milan game and he made an important error against Barcelona. Today he arranged (atoned for it).”

Martino not taking win for granted

Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino felt that the outcome of the game was “fair”, but he warned against complacency ahead of the second leg at Camp Nou on March 12.



“I’m not necessarily confident (about going through), but it’s true that we’ve done a good game in the away leg,” he said.

“We just have to repeat the same performance.”

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho described Martino’s side “as the worst Barcelona of many, many years” and Barca midfielder Cesc Fabregas said that he and his team-mates were pleased to have silenced their critics.

“We had a point to prove, and we did it very well,” he said.

“Some people were talking a bit too much before the game and now they have to shut up for a few days.”

Job still unfinished for PSG after victory

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has urged Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) to finish off Bayer Leverkusen after their 4-0 victory in Germany left them on the verge of the Champions League quarter-finals.

The Sweden star scored two goals in three first-half minutes as the French league leaders ran riot at Leverkusen’s BayArena in Tuesday’s last-16, first-leg clash.

Bayern were reduced to ten men for the final half an hour when Ibrahimovic’s marker Emir Spahic was sent off for a second yellow card.

This was a five-star performance from PSG, but Ibrahimovic was forthright when asked if this Parisian side was the best team he has played in.

“I’ve played in fantastic teams so difficult to say, you can have a great team, but not win trophies, we need to finish the job first,” said the 32-year-old Ibrahimovic.

Midfielder Blaise Matuidi put PSG ahead with barely two minutes gone before Ibrahimovic netted a penalty, then added a second when he unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot to make it 3-0 at the break. Replacement Yohan Cabaye then added PSG’s fourth just before the final whistle to complete the rout.

“I have an embarrassment of riches in my team at the moment,” said PSG’s contented coach Laurent Blanc. “We rediscovered the football we showed in the group stages, it was better than we played at the start of the year and I was pleased to see it.

“The players did really well and I have to praise them for the performance.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.

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