Raphinha Calls Barcelona’s Champions League Exit 'A Robbery'
Barcelona’s Champions League campaign ended in anger and accusation, with Raphinha labelling their quarter-final defeat by Atletico Madrid “a robbery” and tearing into the refereeing over both legs.
Barca went out 3-2 on aggregate despite a 2-1 victory in Tuesday’s second leg, the damage done by a 2-0 loss in the first game and a pair of red cards that left the Catalans feeling persecuted rather than merely beaten.
They finished each leg with 10 men. They finished the tie convinced the officials had helped push them out.
Two reds, two monitors, one furious club
In both matches, the pattern was the same. A yellow card upgraded to red after a VAR review for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
At the Metropolitano, Pau Cubarsi walked after referee Istvan Kovacs was sent to the pitchside monitor. In Barcelona, it was Eric Garcia’s turn, dismissed by Clement Turpin in almost identical fashion.
The decisions cut deep. The sense of déjà vu cut deeper.
Barcelona’s frustration with Kovacs had already been simmering from the first leg. The Romanian referee and video assistant referee Christian Dingert came under fire when they allowed play to continue despite Atletico defender Marc Pubill handling the ball inside his own penalty area, a moment Barca felt could have changed the tie’s entire shape.
The club went as far as filing a complaint to Uefa, accusing officials of a “grave lack of VAR intervention” over the incident. Uefa responded on Tuesday, dismissing the protest as “inadmissible”. The door slammed shut there. The resentment did not.
Raphinha unloads
Raphinha, sidelined through injury for both games, watched it all from the stands. Distance did not soften his view.
“For me, this match was a robbery. Not just this match but the other one as well,” the 29-year-old said after the second leg. His tone matched his words: raw, indignant, and unfiltered.
“The refereeing was really bad, the decisions [Turpin] makes are unbelievable,” he added. “I don't know how many fouls Atletico made but the referee didn't give them a single yellow card. I really want to understand why they're so afraid that Barcelona will come and win.”
The numbers back part of his anger. Atletico did not receive a single booking in the second leg. Barcelona, chasing the tie, left with one yellow and another red.
Pubill had been one of three Atletico players booked in the first leg, when he stopped the ball with his hand after goalkeeper Juan Musso had appeared to restart play with a goal-kick, a sequence that fed Barcelona’s belief that the officiating across the tie lacked consistency and control.
“It was tough, especially when you realise you have to work three times as hard to win the match,” Raphinha said. “I think this tie was quite misleading, in my view. I think everyone can make mistakes; everyone is human.
“But when the mistakes keep repeating themselves in exactly the same way, I think that's something we need to pay attention to.”
Those words will not simply vanish into the night. Uefa confirmed its disciplinary body will study the reports from Tuesday’s game before deciding whether to open a case against the former Leeds United winger, whose accusations cut directly at the integrity of the competition’s officiating.
Atletico hit back
On the other side of the argument, Atletico were having none of it.
Musso, whose clean sheet in the first leg underpinned Atletico’s progress, dismissed Barcelona’s claims outright.
“You can't say this match was stolen from them; that's ridiculous,” the goalkeeper said. “They acted as if they should have had three penalties and we should have had four sendings-off. We won on the pitch, 2–0 away, and when you're the last man back, you get a red card.”
For Atletico, the story is simple: a professional two-legged job, a 2-0 away win built on discipline and ruthlessness, and a second leg they managed well enough to survive a 2-1 defeat and still go through.
For Barcelona, the story is very different: two controversial reds, a rejected complaint, and a forward accusing officials of being “afraid” of his club.
The scoreboard says Atletico advance. The fallout suggests this tie will linger far longer than the final whistle.
