Barcelona was defeated by PSG last night in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals with a score of 4-1, resulting in their elimination from the competition with an aggregate score of 6-4.
Barca had won the first leg 3-2, and in the return leg, they took the lead as early as the 12th minute with a goal from Raphinha, appearing to be on course for a routine passage to the semifinals.
However, in the 29th minute, PSG’s forward Bradley Barcola broke through alone against Marc-Andrea Ter Stegen, only to be brought down from behind by Ronald Araujo, resulting in referee Istvan Kovacs showing him a straight red card.
From that moment on, things went downhill for Barca, who conceded four goals by the end of the match (Dembele 40′, Vitinha 54′, Mbappe pen. 61′, 89′) and were knocked out of the Champions League.
After the match, coach Xavi blamed referee Kovacs for the elimination.
“The red card decided this tie. The referee was extremely poor; he shouldn’t have sent off Araujo. I don’t usually talk about referees, but this time I must. It’s a shame that we work hard and then the referee ruins our whole season. If the referee hadn’t invented the red card, we would have eliminated PSG because we were better 11 vs. 11,” said Xavi, who himself received a red card in the 56th minute.
After a foul in PSG’s half, Xavi began screaming on the sideline and kicked the Champions League advertisement right in front of the fourth official, prompting referee Kovacs to immediately send him off the pitch and to the stands.
“That was my mistake, I deserved to be sent off,” Xavi said of the incident.
