Thierry Henry was shocked by the referee’s decision not to award Barcelona a penalty against Inter Milan during their UEFA Champions League clash on Tuesday.
The Catalan club suffered a 1-0 defeat as Turkish midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu scored the only goal of the game for the Neroazzuris.
However, the referees made a few controversial calls during the game, including not awarding the Spanish side a penalty after Denzel Dumfries clearly handled the ball inside the penalty area.
Henry, who was working as an analyst for Sky Sports along with Jamie Carragher, was shocked by the call as he said:
“How? He’s wrong, please, he’s wrong. Even my son would have seen that hand.”
The loss marked Barcelona’s second straight loss in the competition. They succumbed to a 2-0 away loss against Bayern Munich during Matchday 2 as well.
Xavi Hernandez was left furious at the officials as he lashed out at them while speaking to the media after the game:
“I’m angry. The referees should come out and explain their decisions because we don’t understand anything. I asked the referee to explain his decisions after the match and he refused. What we lived today is injustice.”
Barcelona have gotten off to a good start to their La Liga campaign as they sit at the top of the table with 19 points from seven games.
However, their form in the Champions League has been rather lackluster. With two losses from three games, the Catalan club need a major turnaround to improve their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament.
Here’s what Xavi said:
“We have to recover, we can not fail more. In the first part we have not been at the level required by the competition.”
Barcelona are plagued by injury issues
Xavi Hernandez had more worries added to his team’s poor form in the Champions league as two more star players sustained injuries.
Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie suffered injuries during the game against Inter Milan. Both players could be out for a while.
Jules Kounde and Ronald Araujo are already on the sidelines due to injuries. Now with Christensen also out, Xavi Hernandez will have to rely on Gerard Pique and Eric Garcia for his team’s defensive duties.