Raphinha makes gesture to Atletico Madrid fans before possible Arsenal clash
Raphinha told Atletico Madrid supporters they will be eliminated in the Champions League semi-final after they eliminated Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Atletico held a 2-0 advantage from their win at Camp Nou last week but Barcelona pulled the quarter-final tie level after just 24 minutes in the return leg with goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres.
Ademola Lookman then struck before the break to put Atletico 3-2 ahead on aggregate and Barcelona were unable to find a third goal before they were reduced to ten men with 11 minutes to go with Eric Garcia’s red card.
Atletico will now play either Arsenal or Sporting CP in the Champions League semi-final, with Mikel Arteta’s side heading into Wednesday night’s second leg at the Emirates Stadium with a 1-0 win from last week.
After Barcelona’s Champions League exit, Raphinha made his feelings clear towards Atletico’s supporters inside the Metropolitano as he was caught by DAZN’s cameras saying ‘out you go’ and gesturing with his thumb.
Raphinha’s fury continued in his post-match interview as he described Barcelona’s Champions League exit as a ‘robbery’.
‘For me, it was a robbery. Not only this [game] but the other one too,’ Raphinha told TNT Sports Brasil.
‘The refereeing has been very bad. The decisions he makes are incredible. Atletico committed I don’t know how many fouls and the referee didn’t show them a card.
‘It was difficult, even more so when you see that you need three times as much to win the game. I really wanted to understand their fear of Barca winning.
‘Making one mistake I can understand, but two games in a row… this tie was quite misleading in my view. Everyone can make mistakes, it’s human nature, but when the mistakes keep happening it’s a cause for concern.’
Speaking after his side’s defeat, Hansi Flick said Barcelona ‘deserved’ to be in the Champions League semi-final with their performance over the two legs against Atletico.
‘We’re disappointed. We had the chance to make it 3-0 and then conceded that goal. We had many opportunities, but we didn’t take them,’ Flick said.
‘We played a fantastic game. We played with one less man but the players were fantastic. I really appreciate what I saw today. We haven’t had much luck, we have to accept it.
‘We’ve talked about how to improve. In the first half, we should have scored more goals. We didn’t expect their goal. Looking at both matches, we deserved to be in the semi-final.’
Atletico head coach Diego Simeone said: ‘Every time we compete, we understand there’s only one way to face them – attack them.
Source: YEN.com.gh
