Earlier in the evening, FC Barcelona enjoyed a thrilling victory against Olympiacos. Winning 6 goals to 1 , the Blaugranas found their smiles again after their disappointment against Paris Saint-Germain (1-2). However, this match was marked by numerous refereeing controversies. After a goal logically disallowed for offside against El Kaabi, the referee allowed the Moroccan striker to redeem himself in the process with a penalty, after intervention of the VAR. Back to 2-1, Olympiacos thought they could upset the Culés. That was without counting on another referee intervention.
Four minutes later, the match director gave Hezze a second yellow card, prompting the Argentinian's expulsion. This was a very harsh punishment, as the player didn't appear to have touched Marc Casado, who was complaining of a blow to the face. Ten minutes later, the same thing happened again. This time, the referee once again put the ten-man Greek side on edge by awarding a penalty to Marcus Rashford after contact with Tzolakis (67th minute). Lamine Yamal converted the penalty, making the score 3-1. It was too much for Olympiacos, who subsequently collapsed. But after the match, the Athens club's coach, José Luis Mendilibar, was furious.
" On these grounds, we don't give you any gifts, but today, everything was taken from us. "
“It’s rubbish, it’s bad. In the first half, we had chances, we played well. In the second half, we got back into the game thanks to the penalty, but it didn’t last long. The second yellow card (for Hezze) is incomprehensible. And to top it all off, the penalty. On these pitches, they don’t give you any gifts, but today, they took everything away from us. These are things I don’t understand, because it ends up being a red card (for Hezze’s foul). You ask him to go to the VAR, but he can’t look. I saw the same image as the referee. At the last moment, the goalkeeper folded his arms and I’m sure he didn’t touch the opponent. Another thing is that the opponent touched my goalkeeper. The VAR would have agreed. With that penalty and one player down… You all saw it, didn’t you? "As soon as we entered the game, they eliminated us, without us having done anything wrong. Someone else made the mistakes. We could have played the game, but they eliminated us. We could have been leading 2-1 and made life difficult for Barcelona, but suddenly, with two wrong decisions, they eliminated us. Anyone who sees the result in two days, 6-1, will say 'they gave them a real beating,'" he said, before indicating that he did not seek to speak to the referee at the end of the match.
“No, I didn't want to. I spoke to the fourth official, who was quite polite, but I didn't want to talk to the other one. Given the decisions he made, just by going to talk to him, he would surely have made another bad decision against me. Since I have no influence, absolutely none, it's those up there, eating and drinking, who have the power... It's incredible that this action, decisive for a football match, can't be reviewed by VAR... But hey, I'm not the one who sets the rules and they won't let me set them.” Asked to comment on the opposing coach's statements, Hansi Flick was much more succinct. “ It's not my problem. I see things differently, but I'm not going to get involved. I don't know how the decisions changed the game. We have to play on the pitch, there are favorable and unfavorable situations. I understand that he's angry.” » It's certain that it was not Flick who was going to prove his counterpart from Olympiacos right.
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