Barcelona president Joan Laporta has claimed refereeing mistakes are the reason behind the club failing to make the Champions League final.
Inter prevailed in the semi-finals on Tuesday after a 4-3 comeback victory at San Siro, claiming a place in the Munich final with a 7-6 aggregate win.
The second leg ended 3-3 after 90 minutes before Davide Frattesi scored the winner in extra time.
Speaking to club media on Wednesday, Laporta said of the defeat: “It was not meant to be last night. We fought, but in the end we could not make it. We are not in the Champions League final, basically, due to refereeing mistakes that damaged us, but it has to make us stronger.
“The over 4,000 fans that travelled to Milan deserve everything, as well as everyone who’s helped us through the season. Altogether we need to keep helping them now and make them recover the best mentality to win La Liga
“We will come back to the Champions League and we will fight to win it. It is a tough moment after last night’s defeat because we were so close.”
There were several decisions in the game that drew criticism from Barca players on Tuesday, including two claims for a penalty in the first half before Inter were themselves awarded a spot-kick for a foul by Pau Cubarsi on Lautaro Martinez.
Originally referee Szymon Marciniak waved away appeals from the Inter players but after being asked to view the incident on the pitch-side monitor by the video assistant referee, Marciniak awarded a penalty, which Inter score to lead 2-0 on the night.
Barca’s Inigo Martinez was forced to deny spitting at Inter defender Francesco Acerbi after Inter took a 2-0 lead in the first half. Footage appeared to show Martinez spitting in the direction of Acerbi as he celebrated Inter’s second goal, but VAR did not intervene in the incident.
Barcelona levelled the scores in the second half through Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo, before forward Lamine Yamal was awarded a penalty after a Henrikh Mkhitaryan foul. However, VAR intervened and identified that the initial foul had taken place outside of the penalty area — although the foul did appear to continue inside the box, which should result in a spot kick being given. A free kick was instead awarded.
Despite the penalty decision not going in their favour, Barca took the lead for the first time in the tie through an 87th-minute Raphinha goal, only for Francesco Acerbi to score a dramatic 93rd-minute equaliser for Inter. The Serie A side went on to win the tie in extra-time to deny Barcelona a first Champions League final appearance since 2015.
Hansi Flick’s side return to action on Sunday with the visit of Real Madrid, who they lead by four points at the top of La Liga with four league matches remaining.
(Top photo: Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images)