Having seen the chance of progressing to the quarter-finals in the Champions League obliterated by Bayern Munich last night (though the Gunners can still progress), Arsene Wenger has directed his rage towards Arjen Robben, while sympathised with Mesut Ozil for missing a penalty.
The Frenchman has accused the Dutch maestro of diving to win the penalty that resulted in goal keeper Wojciech Szczesny being sent off before the half time break. It was always going to be difficult to play against Bayern with 10-men and Wenger feels that incident has “killed” the competition completely.
It was clear that Robben was touched by Szczesny and that it was a blatant penalty. But Wenger feels the Nicola Rizzoli, the Italian referee, did not need to send the goalkeeper off while added that Robben made a meal out of that contact.
“Our goalkeeper genuinely went for the ball,” Wenger said as quoted in The Times. “He touched Robben and he certainly made more of it. I told him afterwards. He has enough experience to make more of it. The rules [on sending goalkeepers off] are different in every country. In Italy, you get sent off for these kind of fouls [such as Szczesny’s].
“I am not a good enough referee to say why he gave the red card. The regret I have is that it is a decision he made after Wojciech misjudged the situation. There was no clear desire to commit a foul. Overall I felt Bayern made more of every single contact, and we are not used to it in England.
“Unfortunately it completely changed the game, it killed the game. Up until then it was top quality, but in the second half I think it was boring for neutrals. It was one-way traffic.”
Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas said that Jose Mourinho should mind his own business after the Portuguese claimed that this is the weakest Barcelona team he has seen in many, many years. Fabregas said as quoted in The Guardian:
“He should talk about Chelsea and their tie [with Galatasaray]. I don’t think he should talk about anything else. It is not his business,” said Fábregas, who denied Mourinho’s comments had driven Barça on. “If we have to get motivated by Mourinho’s comments we shouldn’t play football.”
Barcelona earned a 2-0 victory against Manchester City at the Etihad on Tuesday night in the first leg of the round 16 Champions League tie, but Fabregas is not taking for anything granted.
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