“It’s a shame that the work of an entire season ends with a referee’s decision.” With this phrase Xavi Hernández summarized István Kovács’ performance in Barça’s elimination from the Champions League at the hands of PSG. The expulsion of Ronald Araújo before half an hour of play affected the team, although some of its players did not want to apologize to the referee.
One of them was Ilkay Gündogan, “disappointed” for “letting what was done in the first leg and the advantage of the second leg slip away.” “We had it in our hands,” he lamented. Accustomed to not biting his tongue – he was already critical of the locker room after the defeat against Real Madrid – the German midfielder once again spoke openly about the mistakes made during the match, starting with the avoidable red card for the Uruguayan centre-back.
“If there was a foul, it’s red, that’s for sure. I haven’t seen the replay, but if he didn’t touch the ball, that’s what it is. In those situations it’s difficult, but when you cross paths with your opponent you have to be sure that you’re going to get to the ball first. If not, you should let him pass, let him have one-on-one with the goalkeeper because the ball even went long and I don’t know if it came. In any case, it is even better that they score the goal, because you will be left with one less man. so early in the game… it kills you,” he told CBS Sports.
Marc-André Ter Stegen’s words were along the same lines. “In the end you are left with one less after half an hour. I don’t want to say that it was a mistake, I wanted to go for the ball. I think that if a foul is called he has to send him off and this has changed everything. Araujo can be whistled for a foul “.
Gündogan also wanted to be critical of PSG’s second goal, the work of Vitinha, after a corner kick in an action in which the numerical inferiority was not noticeable. “It was a mistake. We have to be attentive in those moments and not let him shoot. Vitinha is very free and we have to go out and cover him. It’s nothing that we haven’t trained in, whoever is closest has to go out and cover it and no one did it. “A totally unnecessary second goal,” he admitted before stressing again that “the errors penalized us.”
This Wednesday morning, Gündogan shared a message on the networks in which he highlighted that we must “learn from this defeat” and now think about Sunday’s League match against Real Madrid.
“What a frustrating night. It was painful. We were in a good position after the first leg, but in the end it didn’t work out. It’s a shame to lose a game like this. We need to have the mentality to pick ourselves up, learn from the loss and try again.” again next season. It’s the only way,” he wrote along with an image of him applauding the stands.
“But for now… the classic is just around the corner and we need to be fully focused on it! See Barça,” he added.
