Barcelona coach Hansi Flick refused to engage in a battle with Real Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa over the latter’s comments that the Catalan club has benefited more from refereeing decisions in recent years.
Barcelona suffered what Flick considered “injustice” during their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Atlético Madrid, and the Blaugrana management filed an official complaint with UEFA regarding the refereeing.
During the press conference before Saturday’s derby against Espanyol, Flick was asked about Arbeloa’s comments and the refereeing controversy surrounding the Atlético match. Notably, he responded sharply when the topic of the Los Blancos coach came up.
What did Arbeloa say about Barcelona?
Arbeloa was asked about the discrepancy in Barcelona’s red card record in La Liga and Europe in recent years. He replied, “You all know my opinion about what has happened for many years and continues to happen. I won’t change my mind.”
When asked if he thought the decisions during Barcelona’s Champions League match against Atlético Madrid were correct, Arbeloa shifted the conversation to the decision not to send off Gerard Martín during their La Liga match on Saturday night. “I don’t want to get into that kind of assessment. We’ve already seen what happened last weekend and what has been happening for weeks. My opinion is clear and I stand by it; it’s what I continue to see week after week.”
Arbeloa went on to suggest that the forces influencing La Liga also seem to be influencing the Champions League, before returning to the controversial “Negrera” incident.
“It’s not about trust or lack of trust, it’s about what we see before our eyes,” he said. “It happened on Tuesday with the tackle on Mbappé; it’s difficult to understand why there wasn’t a red card. This is happening even with VAR, which seemed to be going to fix a lot of things.”
He added, “Regarding Spanish football, we’re still waiting for an explanation, and we need to fix this. There’s a lot of doubt surrounding all these kinds of decisions; one week VAR intervenes, the next week it doesn’t. For my part, I’m trying to focus on my job as a coach.”
Flick responds strongly to Arbeloa
When asked about the Real Madrid coach’s comments, Flick replied, “Nothing, nothing. I don’t waste my time or energy on this. It’s his opinion, fine. I’m focused on my team, nothing else.”
He continued, “I don’t pay attention to these things. This is the nature of the job; there’s a lot of debate between us.”
He concluded, “That’s what I tell the team: we have to focus on ourselves, not on what Real Madrid is doing. We’re in a good position, and we have to win every match and think only about ourselves.”
In an official statement… Real Madrid denies appointing a sporting director!
Flick attacks European refereeing again
Flick praised Barcelona’s statement and the complaint filed with UEFA regarding the incident against Atlético Madrid, adding, “It’s good for me and the team that the club supports us in this matter, because what happened was unfair. You can make a mistake once, but not twice, and the club’s support was a huge help.”
He continued, “VAR is there to help us, and if the referee sees something wrong, he should call the on-field referee and tell him to review the footage. That’s what we lacked in this match.”
He concluded, “It’s true that we didn’t play our best and we made some mistakes, but that wasn’t good, and at that moment, the match was decided.”
