Crying foul: Referees protect Barcelona, fumes Atletico Madrid’s red-carded Fernando Torres
Fernando Torres raged that Atletico Madrid are not treated equally to Barcelona by referees after his early red card turned their Uefa Champions League quarter-final, first-leg match around on Tuesday.
Torres had put Atletico in front at the Camp Nou before seeing two quick-fire yellow cards to leave the visitors a man light for over an hour.
Luis Suarez finally converted Barca’s relentless second-half pressure into a 2-1 lead as he struck twice in 12 minutes.
Uefa worry about making us change shirts, but they didn’t appoint a referee that is up to the level of the Champions League quarter-finals
However, Atletico were enraged as, unlike Torres, Suarez escaped punishment for a kick-out at Juanfran and an off-the-ball incident with Filipe Luis.
“They shouldn’t have been cards. If it had been the other way around then they wouldn’t have been given,” Torres told Spanish radio station Cadena Cope.
“With 11 [men] we would have won without any doubt.”
And the former Liverpool and Chelsea striker claimed Uefa has its priorities wrong after making both sides play in their away kits to avoid a colour clash.
“Uefa worry about making us change shirts, but they didn’t appoint a referee that is up to the level of the Champions League quarter-finals.”
