Raphinha told Atletico Madrid supporters they shall be eliminated within the Champions League semi-final after they eliminated Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Atletico held a 2-0 advantage from their win at Camp Nou last week but Barcelona pulled the quarter-final tie level after just 24 minutes within the return leg with goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres.
Ademola Lookman then struck before the break to place Atletico 3-2 ahead on aggregate and Barcelona were unable to search out a 3rd goal before they were reduced to 10 men with 11 minutes to go together with Eric Garcia’s red card.
Atletico will now play either Arsenal or Sporting CP within the Champions League semi-final, with Mikel Arteta’s side heading into Wednesday night’s second leg on the Emirates Stadium with a 1-0 win from last week.
After Barcelona’s Champions League exit, Raphinha made his feelings clear towards Atletico’s supporters contained in the Metropolitano as he was caught by DAZN’s cameras saying ‘out you go’ and gesturing together with his thumb.
Raphinha’s fury continued in his post-match interview as he described Barcelona’s Champions League exit as a ‘robbery’.
‘For me, it was a robbery. Not only this [game] but the opposite one too,’ Raphinha told TNT Sports Brasil.
‘The refereeing has been very bad. The selections he makes are incredible. Atletico committed I don’t understand how many fouls and the referee didn’t show them a card.
‘It was difficult, much more so once you see that you just need 3 times as much to win the sport. I actually wanted to grasp their fear of Barca winning.
‘Making one mistake I can understand, but two games in a row… this tie was quite misleading for my part. Everyone could make mistakes, it’s human nature, but when the mistakes keep happening it’s a cause for concern.’
Champions League semi-final
PSG vs Real Madrid or Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid vs Arsenal or Sporting CP
Speaking after his side’s defeat, Hansi Flick said Barcelona ‘deserved’ to be within the Champions League semi-final with their performance over the 2 legs against Atletico.
‘We’re upset. We had the prospect to make it 3-0 after which conceded that goal. We had many opportunities, but we didn’t take them,’ Flick said.
‘We played a unbelievable game. We played with one less man however the players were unbelievable. I actually appreciate what I saw today. We haven’t had much luck, we have now to just accept it.
‘We’ve talked about the way to improve. In the primary half, we must always have scored more goals. We didn’t expect their goal. each matches, we deserved to be within the semi-final.’
Atletico head coach Diego Simeone said: ‘Each time we compete, we understand there’s just one option to face them – attack them.
‘They’d more possession this time, within the previous match it was more even. Should you don’t attack them, you lose. They’re superb at attacking. We knew the possibilities we had.
‘Within the cup, we played a unbelievable first half here after which needed to suffer there. Within the Champions League first leg, we took advantage of the necessary moments we had in our favour, and that 2-0 lead gave us some respiration room for a posh match.
‘The way in which Julian and Griezmann ran, the work of Llorente, Nahuel, Koke, Matteo’s outstanding performance, how the substitutes got here on. It gave us enormous strength.
‘Playing a Champions League semi-final… wow, that’s great. We’ll go there with all the keenness and faith. We all know our strengths and weaknesses.
‘Now we have plenty of faith, we’re prepared, and we’ll go there to search out what we’ve been in search of for a few years.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MORE: Hugo Ekitike injury update after Liverpool striker is stretchered off vs PSG
MORE: Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka injury update ahead of Arsenal vs Sporting
MORE: Arsenal handed fresh injury scare as five miss training ahead of Sporting and Man City