Arsène Wenger accused Massimo Busacca, the Swiss referee, of killing Arsenal’s Champions League tie against Barcelona last night after his side were knocked out of the competition in controversial fashion at the Nou Camp.
The Arsenal manager clashed with the official twice — once in the tunnel after the final whistle and again half an hour later — after his side’s 3-1 defeat in the round of 16, second leg gave Barcelona a 4-3 aggregate victory. Wenger blamed the result on the dismissal of Robin van Persie for a second bookable offence in the 56th minute, when the score was 1-1.
Having been booked in the first half for shoving Daniel Alves, Van Persie’s second offence was to shoot momentarily after he had been flagged offside. The referee’s whistle preceded his shot by one second, leading Van Persie to describe the decision and the official as “a joke” and Wenger to claim that even Uefa delegates were shocked by the sending-off. Two goals in three minutes from Xavi Hernández and Lionel Messi took Barcelona through after Sergio Busquets’s own goal had cancelled out Messi’s first-half opener.
“Those who love Arsenal and those who love football can be frustrated with the referee’s decisions,” Wenger said. “It is very difficult to understand. How can you kill a football game like that? At the moment he made the decision it was a very good game.
“It’s no surprise that he didn’t book a single Barcelona player. I just spoke to Uefa people and they were shocked. It killed a promising football match and what for? If it is a bad tackle then fair enough, but the way he did it was embarrassing when you love the game.”
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Van Persie claimed he was unaware that Busacca had blown his whistle. “The sending-off was a total joke,” the Holland striker said. “How can I hear his whistle with 90,000 people jumping up, for God’s sake? One second? That makes it even worse. I can understand that from the referee if it’s four or five seconds and you make a chip or something. But one second, it’s a joke.”
Van Persie added further criticism of Busacca via his Twitter account: “Thanks all AFC fans 4 tonight played vs a great team and a even better ref. He had a absolute shocker tonight, think we all agree on this 1” Wenger argued that with Van Persie on the pitch Arsenal would have gone on to win the game, an outlandish claim given they did not have a single shot on target and were restricted to just 24 per cent of possession.
“I felt Barcelona gave a lot in the first half of the game, but in the second half we felt there was more space,” Wenger said. “I felt that, like in the first game, we would have come back into it and I am convinced we would have won.”
Pep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, dismissed Wenger’s complaints. “They did not have a shot on goal or three passes,” he said. “Wenger can see that as well as I can. We were better than them and could have won by more.”
Wojciech Szczesny, the Arsenal goalkeeper, dislocated a finger on his left hand after 18 minutes and was replaced by Manuel Almunia. Cesc Fàbregas, who hurt a hamstring and is a doubt for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final away to Manchester United, apologised for the error that led to Messi’s first goal.
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“I take full blame for the result tonight,” Fàbregas said. “One of the worst moments of my life. I apologise.”