Spanish media split over Van Persie bookings

FAIR result, unfair ref.

That more or less sums up the Spanish reaction to Barcelona’s controversial defeat of Arsenal — in Madrid at any rate. In Catalonia itself they naturally see things rather differently.

“What are they moaning about?” demanded Barcelona sports paper Mundo Deportivo. “In London they’re complaining that Robin van Persie’s dismissal determined the Gunners’ game. Yes, obviously it did — but the Swiss official should have reduced Arsenal to nine men and also given a penalty for the foul on Messi when the score was 0-0.”

Van Persie’s hand-off to Daniel Alves in the first half was worthy of a straight red according to the regulations, argued MD’s football analyst Ferran Martinez. And the second-half yellow was justified “because he was offside and carried on playing”.

Further, Laurent Koscielny should have gone for two fouls on Pedro — and a third offence late on David Villa.

“In the first leg there were controversial decisions by the Italian, Rizzoli, which also went Arsenal’s way and yet no one mentions those.”

El Periodico preferred to play down the polemics and play up the performance. Van Persie was booked for “two acts of stupidity... the only time he was seen” and “when it came to the moment of truth, Arsene Wenger left his bowler hat in London, donned a helmet and opted for trench warfare” said reporter David Torras. But it was: “A roller-coaster of emotions which took Camp Nou to the limit, with more than 95,000 hearts pounding and goose-bumps from start to finish. It was a match full of epic moments, worthy of a huge game.”

Down in Madrid, Eduardo Inda, director and editor of Spain’s main sports paper Marca, gave a rather more balanced view — and pointed out that after playing against a 10-man Inter in last year’s semi-final Barcelona had once again benefited from having an extra player for virtually half the match.

“Nothing new on the Barcelona front. It was a sporting injustice in Camp Nou, because although Barcelona were the better team by a distance in terms of the game, there have to be serious doubts if there was justice from the referee.”

Real Madrid star Mesut Ozil echoed his view. “I think everyone could see it was something unfair,” he said, in response to a question at a press conference, “but I don’t want to say anything more. It was something unfair, and that’s it.”

However, all’s well that ends well, was Eduardo Inda’s conclusion. With Barcelona through, the enticing prospect of that all-Spanish final they missed out on last year comes one step closer.

“Whatever the arguments, it was a good result for Barca and also very good for Spanish football.”