‘Not the first time’… Pedri comes out strongly against the referee after Barcelona’s elimination from the UCL | OneFootball

FC Barcelona players once again left everything on the pitch as they faced Inter Milan in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final tie. However, unfortunately for the Blaugranes, they were unable to get a win that would have taken them to the UCL final, despite coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the second half.

The midfielder Pedri was once again immense for his side, as he provided his usual two-way presence in the midfield to provide a lot of solutions.

Pedri blasts the referee

As Mundo Deportivo has reported, he also spoke to the media after the end of the game and expressed his disappointment at not getting a result:

“Proud of the team. A bit disappointed because we managed to come back from a result that went very much against us.”

Like Hansi Flick and Inigo Martinez, the Spaniard was highly critical of the referee for this game:

“It’s not the first time this has happened to us with this referee, UEFA should look into it. There are things I don’t understand and they’re hard to explain. All the 50-50 calls go their way. In the penalty on Lamine, which was later called a foul, he didn’t show a yellow card to Mkhitaryan, which would have been his second.”

Barcelona playing against Inter Milan. [Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images]

Looking forward to the league El Clasico

Ultimately, Pedri accepted the defeat and asked his team to learn from it:

“It’s very cruel. It’s true that the team gave everything and deserved to be in the final, but we’re young and we have to learn from this—and next year we’ll come back even stronger.”

For now, the Canarian was already thinking about the upcoming league match against Real Madrid:

“Right now we’re gutted, but starting tomorrow we have to focus on Madrid because half the league is at stake.”

It is quite natural to feel blue after such a gut-wrenching loss but as Pedri highlighted, Barcelona cannot remain embroiled in it too much as they have another crucial game against Real Madrid awaiting them, which can prove to be decisive for the league race.