Following Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the knock-out phase of the Champions League at the Etihad on Tuesday night, manager Manuel Pellegrini certainly felt a sense of injustice towards his side during the game by match official Jonas Eriksson.
The usually deadpan Chilean manager was very vocal in his criticism of the referee during the post-match conference, as he claimed that the referee ‘decided’ the game in the favour of Barcelona and went on to accuse the Swedish official of being partial.
Pellegrini’s astonishing outburst could land him in hot water, with FIFA said to be investigating the 60-year old’s comment after the game.
Now, to rub salt into City’s wounds, Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets has branded the Premier League side as ‘Losers’ for complaining incessantly at the referee’s performances following the defeat.
Busquets feels that referees are bound to make mistakes sometimes and that such errors can go either for or against a certain team. Therefore, the 25-year old stated that City should stop acting like sore losers and move on without making any further excuses.
Speaking to reporters, Busquets said, “I think that the referees make mistakes frequently. Sometimes those mistakes are good for you and other times are bad. They give more importance to an error on our behalf, in any game or any result. That happened a few days ago against Manchester City.
“You have to leave the referees do their job. Sometimes their mistakes will be on your behalf and some others not. The excuses when you lose are for losers. Is better (to) forget and focus on the next match.”
City will have it all do to when they travel to the daunting Nou Camp Stadium for the second leg of the tie on March 12, in hopes of overturning the deficit.
Is Busquets right in branding City as ‘Losers’ Or Do the Premier League side have valid reasons to express their anger at the official?
