The arm of Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs crosses the front page of the daily Mundo Deportivo this Wednesday morning. The day after PSG's big victory over Barça (1-4) in the quarter-final of the Champions League, the Catalan sports newspaper focuses on its significant decision on Tuesday evening: the expulsion of FC Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo in the first period, when he and his partners led 1-0 after winning at the Parc des Princes in the first leg a week earlier.
“Fatal red”, writes Mundo Deportivo on its first page, which considers the expulsion of the Uruguayan “questionable” after his foul on Bradley Barcola. “The contact between the Blaugrana central defender and the PSG striker existed, but it did not seem serious enough to leave a team with ten players in such a decisive return match with still an hour to play,” laments the boss in his editorial. of the editorial staff, Santi Mina. It is not a blatant injustice, because if the referee judges that it is a foul it is worth red, but it is an excessive punishment which destroyed the greatness and the spectacle of two excellent teams confronting each other on one foot of equality. »
“It's over”, regrets, in French in the text, the other Catalan sports daily, Sport, in one of its articles devoted to the C1 meeting. “FC Barcelona was eliminated from the Champions League yesterday (Tuesday) evening in a cruel and unbearable manner,” laments one of the media’s journalists. At ten, “Barça was without protection and defense” underlines Sport.
“The expulsion radically changed the face of the meeting”
The latter also speaks of a “Montjuïc scandal” for an arbitration decision other than that denounced by FC Barcelona coach Xavi after the match. Sport believes that the referee should have awarded a penalty to the Barcelona players in the second half, when Paris had a two-goal lead, for an alleged foul by Vitinha on Ilkay Gundogan.
“The expulsion radically changed the face of the meeting,” underlines RAC 1, Catalan radio. The domination, until now unequal, passed to the PSG side which besieged the Blaugrana goal. » With, on arrival, a scathing setback for the Catalan players.