Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has voiced his displeasure at match referee Jonas Eriksson, for his performance in last night’s glamour tie with Spanish giants FC Barcelona.
City hosted the La Liga giants in the Champions League last-16 first-leg, and with the game all square at 0-0, it was anyones for the taking, but a controversial decision from Eriksson in the second-half seemingly cost Pellegrini’s side.
After Lionel Messi was put through one-on-one with Joe Hart, City defender Martin Demichelis decided to try and tackle the Argentine, but he only managed to bring the speedster down and concede a penalty and also receive a red card for being the last man.
However, after watching replays, it showed that the initial contact of the tackle happened outside of the box and Messi fell into the box, therefore it should have been a free-kick rather than a penalty, and that is something that annoyed Pellegrini and he voiced his displeasure after the final whistle.
“Of course I have a complaint, not only for the penalty and the red card.
“I think in the whole match we didn’t have a referee with impartiality to both teams.
“He decided the game. He decided the game because it was a foul by (Sergio) Busquets on Navas. The referee was three metres away and he didn’t blow the whistle and after that the foul from Demichelis is outside the box, it’s not a penalty.
“Important mistakes against a great team like Barcelona make it difficult to win.”
He added: “I think it is a mistake to nominate a referee that has had problems with Barcelona.
“Maybe he made mistakes in Milan. To have the same referee here, I repeat, is a mistake.”
A Dani Alves strike in stoppage-time secured Barca a 2-0 victory in the first-leg.
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
