MY ACCOUNT
Thierry Henry questioned why Barcelona were not awarded a penalty in their contentious 1-0 loss to Inter Milan, despite “20 billion cameras” spotting Denzel Dumfries’ handball.
Inter claimed a valuable victory at San Siro in Tuesday’s Champions League tie through Hakan Calhanoglu’s brilliant first-half strike.
But Barca were left furious after a Pedri equaliser was ruled out by VAR for handball against Ansu Fati in the build-up, before having a late penalty call rejected.
A cross towards Fati was cut out by the hand of Dumfries, but Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic and his officials decided against awarding the visitors a stoppage-time penalty.
It is a decision that left Xavi furious, with the Barca boss already on a yellow card for protesting the disallowed goal, and one the Catalans will reportedly formally complain about.
Speaking alongside referee consultant Christina Unkel, who was trying to defend the decision, former Barcelona striker Henry ridiculed VAR’s inability to spot the handball.
“[Dumfries] takes the ball away from Ansu Fati,” he told CBS. “I usually never say anything about disallowed goals.
“But Christina, do you, the referees, have the right to sometimes say that you were wrong? Are you ever taught to say you were wrong?
“He was wrong, bye. There is nothing to explain. He was wrong. It happens. It happened to me, it happens to many people. He was wrong.
“The guy in the truck [VAR official] didn’t call the ref. I don’t know what experience he has, but even my son could have seen there was a hand.
“He would have seen it. He saw it, he even texted me to say, ‘There’s a hand’. You’ve got 20 billion cameras and you can’t see it? Please! It happens but it was wrong.”
The defeat could be damaging for Barca as they now trail second-placed Inter by three points at the halfway stage in Group C, with leaders Bayern Munich six points better off.
Xavi, who became the first Barca coach to lose his first three away Champions League games, was “outraged” by the display of the match officials.
“First they explain to us that Ansu handled but another team-mate scored, then with the other incident, it is not clear what happened,” he said at his post-match press conference.
“It is my opinion. I would have liked to speak to the referee, because he did not blow the whistle. At the moment, I am outraged, it is an injustice and it makes no sense.
“Now we still have three finals left, we have already lost in Munich and we start again. But there is indignation.
“In general, it was a great injustice. The referee should give explanations, instead he goes away and nothing happens. He has to come here and explain.”
Barcelona welcome Inter to Camp Nou next week before concluding their group-stage campaign with a home match against Bayern and a trip to bottom side Viktoria Plzen.
