Barcelona coach Hansi Flick has expressed his frustrations at the referee’s decision in the 4-3 loss to Inter Milan in the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.
The Blaugrana suffered a 7-6 aggregate defeat in Italy to bow out of the competition which they last won in 2015.
Davide Frattesi scored an extra time winner for Inter Milan to seal their second final in three years after Acerbi dragged the game into extra time with a late goal.
Flick has criticised Polish referee Szymon Marciniak who has a busy night in the encounter.
He awarded Inter a penalty after a VAR review for a challenge by Pau Cubarsi on Lautaro Martinez that he did not deem an infringement and later reversed a decision he had signaled as a spot kick for Barcelona, with VAR saying Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s foul on Lamine Yamal was just outside the box.
He said: “I don’t want to talk too much about the referee, but every decision that was 50-50 went (Inter’s) way.
“I am disappointed, but not with my team. They tried everything. It’s the way it is. We are out, but next year we will try again to make the fans happy.
“It makes me sad … My team did an excellent job. I don’t like talking about the referee … I’ve told him what I think, but I’m not going to say it here what I’ve said…”
Flick said Barcelona will now turn their attention to the La Liga clash against Real Madrid on Sunday.
He said: “We’ll learn from this. It’s a progression. We want to keep learning. We don’t have much time to train now, but next weekend we are back. It’s normal to be disappointed.
“The team deserves the respect they have earned. We play to win, we want to win titles and we have LaLiga, with a very difficult match. We have a few days to prepare for this match.
Barcelona are unbeaten this season against Real Madrid having won their last three matches in all competitions against their rivals including in the Copa del Rey final.
Similarly, Barcelona young star, Lamine Yamal, was gutted to miss out on the Champions League final place while urging the team to bounce back next season.
He said: “We gave it our all — this year it couldn’t be, but we’ll be back, have no doubt about it. Culers, we won’t stop until we put this club where it belongs: at the very top. I will keep my promise and bring it to Barcelona; we won’t stop until we achieve it,” he wrote on Instagram.
“But Sunday is another final, and we all need to be together. Visca el Barça!” he added.
It was the joint highest-scoring Champions League semi-final ever, with the 13 goals equalling the 2018 semi-final when Liverpool also defeated Roma 7-6 on aggregate.
