At a glance
- FC Barcelona have a mountain to climb in the Champions League after losing their quarterfinal first leg 2-0 to Atletico Madrid in Camp Nou.
- The tide turned on the stroke of half time, when Pau Cubarsi received a straight card.
- Julian Alvarez scored the resulting free kick, and Alexander Sorloth doubled his team’s lead after the break.
FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick raged and stated “I don’t know why we have VAR” after his side lost a Champions League quarterfinal first leg tie to Atletico Madrid by a score of 2-0.
The first half had been a tight, goalless affair until Pau Cubarsi brought down Giuliano Simeone near the box approaching the interval.
Cubarsi first received a yellow card, but that quickly got turned into a red after a VAR review. With Julian Alvarez scoring the resulting free kick and Alexander Sorloth making it 2-0 after the break, Flick lamented the video technology and the result following the full time whistle.
“I’m not sure if he touches him enough because the ball was behind. I’m not sure,” Flick said, regarding Cubarsi’s incident with Giuliano.
“I think there are many situations where I don’t know why the VAR hasn’t come in. It’s a German referee – the VAR referee was Christian Dyert – and I don’t know why we have VAR,” the Barca manager added.
Flick vowed team won’t quit in Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid second leg
Despite having a mountain to climb at the Metropolitano without Cubarsi or Raphinha six days from now, this team does not know how to surrender. Nor will Flick let them.
“We lost 2-0 but we had chances, we are not going to give up,” Flick vowed, in a sentiment echoed on the pitch of the Spotify Camp Nou after Barca received their sentence.
Grouped together, the players headed to the Grada d’Animacio in the Gol Sud as applause from 59,000 fans rang around the Catalan fortress.
“Yes we can!” went the war cry too, and Culers once more believe in a remontada for the ages to reach a last four meeting with either Arsenal or Sporting CP.
