Trainer Xavi is furious with referee István Kovács, as he makes clear to the camera after the painful 1-4 defeat in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain Movistar. The FC Barcelona coach believes that the Romanian referee influenced the match too much.

Paris Saint-Germain qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday evening at the expense of FC Barcelona. After last week's 1-2 defeat, Luis Enrique's team was this time 1-4 too strong for FC Barcelona. The turning point in the match was a red card for Ronald Araújo after half an hour of play. Xavi himself also received red from Kovács.

The match started well for Barça with an opening goal from Raphinha on a pass from Lamine Yamal, but in the 29th minute things went completely wrong for the Catalans.

Araújo felt forced to pull the emergency brake when Bradley Barcola, who had broken through, enjoyed free passage towards Ter Stegen. The Uruguayan defender pushed the French winger in the back and was able to intervene with a red card. Afterwards, PSG walked away relatively easily to 1-4.

“We had chances, but with ten men it will be a difficult story in the Champions League,” Xavi concluded afterwards. “The red card for Araújo was very unjustified in this situation. It is not good for football to give a red card for this. The referee's decision was decisive in this match.”

“It is painful that a whole season of hard work is ended by a decision by the referee. I also told him that he was very bad, that he did not understand the game. He was terrible.”

“He completely changes the game. I don't like to talk about the referees, but in this case the impact was just too great,” said the irritated Xavi.

More sports news