Atletico Madrid lost a man, and went ahead to lose the first leg of their Champions League quarter final campaign against Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.
Fernando Torres put the visitors in front, but his heroic feat could not stand the test of time after he was sent off for a needless challenge before half time. The Diego Simeone led side gave in to pressure from the Catalans with Luis Suarez grabbing a brace to give Barcelona a slight advantage going into second leg at Vincente Calderon next week.
The Are they about to lose another man?
Philipe Luis, Atlectico’s left back, in his post match comment accused referee Felix Brych of tilting in his officiating on the night with reference to neglected calls which could have earned Barcelona similar treatment. In his words, ‘the sending off is totally unjust and changed the game” he said.
“Barcelona are protected. When you play against them you realize that they are a very powerful club”
‘You realise the fear when Barcelona could get knocked out. It would hurt UEFA a lot.
‘Against Real Madrid there was a similar moment [from Suarez]. I don’t know what they have to do for someone to send one of them off.
‘Fernando, two fouls, two cards. The referee has not seen many Madrid-Barcelona derbies. There would be eight red cards.
‘I don’t don’t know what [a Barcelona player] has to do to get sent off.
‘They sent me off [in La Liga fixture] correctly, but the other team isn’t treated the same. That’s what hurts.’
Amidst the insinuations, coach Diego Simeone has maintained his cool avoiding unsavoury comment, knowing fully well the implication of such statements.
Former Ugandan President, Idi Amin puts it thus, ‘There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech.’
