It seems that finishing a Champions League match against Barcelona with all your players still on the pitch is a remarkable feat.
It’s something that their La Liga rivals Atletico Madrid were unable to achieve during Tiesday night’s quarter-final, after Fernando Torres was shown a second yellow on the 36 minute mark.
It was a sending off which Filipe Luis did not approve of. The Atletico defender criticised the referee’s decision to send Torres to the showers early, during his post-match interview.
“It was totally unfair for me. From my point of view, he’s a striker – second foul, second yellow. It’s totally unfair but we knew that this was going to happen. It’s not easy to play against Barcelona in the Champions League. They’re a club with a lot of history and it’s really dangerous if they go out in this qualifier.”
The red card, along with the fact that Barca striker Luis Suarez appeared to get away with what looked like a clear sending off offence, gave rise to the argument that there is a perceived bias from Champions League officials towards Barca.
The statistics strengthen this argument, as Barcelona have seen 30 different opponents receive their marching orders during Champions League matches, 10 more than Bayern Munich in second place, while Arsenal are in third with 18.
Barca fans will argue that their tricky style of play draws more fouls and therefore results in more sending offs.
