PICTURE: Abidal grabs van Persie's neck
Barcelona defender Eric Abidal somehow managed to get away with grabbing Robin van Persie’s neck in a first half scuffle at the Nou Camp.
After the break, Arsenal’s Dutch striker was penalised for kicking the ball away just one second after the referee blew his whistle for offside.
“How can I hear a whistle with 90,000 people jumping up. How to God can I hear that? The referee has been a joke all evening, I don’t know why he is even here. These people are unbelievable,” van Persie told Sky Sports in his post-match interview.
Leave your thoughts on the match and officials decision making in the comments section below.
69 Comments
Thank you van Persie for your. at last someone other than wenger telling the truth. It was a shock sending off and I hope that doesn’t affect him in anyway. How Abidal got away with that i do not know. Hopefully next time.
not an excuse… we were OUTCLASSED
with that ref we had no chance. you need every bit of help playing v the best and we didn,t get it. cesc was not fit and should not have played. well done gunners – you are still the greatest CLUB. Premier league now – please?!!
Unreal the reffing in this game. Still AFC had been booked and warned for time wasting (Sagna) so although I thought the RVP yellow was ridiculous to be fair it wasn’t that out of the blue. I’m not justifying it, I’m just calming down and trying to be rational. The ref’s skewed perception was that AFC were time wasting and trying to slow things up. Not saying he was right but if he gave a yellow for it in the first half…
And RVP’s first yellow was unacceptable even though it was a result of the throat grabbing. You have to keep your cool in big games.
I don’t know what to make of it all to be honest I’m still processing it all. Rosicky for instance, why was he even playing over Arshavin?
Whatever, no point in chasing our tails. Big game in four days. They need to regroup and get ready.
Sorry, but Arsenal were playing overly physical in that first half and this happened after a perfectly well timed (yet very English) tackle was made. Arsenal players are the ones that were the aggressors and were lucky they didn’t get in worse foul trouble. This is a nice little piece of biased journalism. Well done though.
Doesn’t matter Mohamed, we were winning before Van Persie was sent off whether we were outclassed or not. We outclass teams week in week out but don’t always win
It would’ve been hard with 11, but once we went down to 10 forget it. Stupid decision but I think we would’ve lost anyway! 3-2!
cant u take defeat with abit of grace?
2 weeks ago, as a Barca fan, I congratulated you guys for actually playing good football unlike Chelsea and Inter but I’m fed up with the way English media looks at things in only one direction.
The red was harsh yes but dont tell me he didnt hear it, he is the most one footed player, he had all the time in the world to put it on to his left but this time he decides to shoot with his right??
Nothing has been mentioned of the 1st leg incidents in England: the wrongly disallowed offside goal and the 2 hand ball decisions, Djourou and Arshavin. Nor the clear penalty tonight on Messi and that Koscielny should’ve been 2nd yellowed for the foul on Pedro
I enjoyed both games but the crap I hear from the English media, seriously, these people are supposed to be giving us insight, not brainwashing
True we were outclassed but is that any reason for the referee to be diabolical, how many times have we outclassed teams but not won it was barca who dominated true, but our keeper made some great saves but for the referee to continually give our players yellow cards like confetti and xcuse barca is a joke. In all honesty i am getting fed up of the game cause where there is too much money at stake, there is not bound to be corruption, there is corruption. shame it cant be proven. 🙁
deserved to go out. no excuses Should have been 8-1 to Barca
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Massimo-Busacca/119212181458410
Massimo would like all goooners to leave their message
Try this in your Sunday league……
Yes, the ref was a joke, but we were an even bigger one as well.
ZERO shots on goal?
Come on!
On Saturday we will be out of the FA CUP and since Szczesny is out for a season our season is over as well.
The same crap once again.
TAXI for Wenger.
Mohammed dont be stupid.. we were fantastic from my point of view except for fabregas the sucker and diaby.. honestly Wenger didn’t make anything wrong in this match.. Im not a person to support wenger but truth to be told his tactic today was brilliant.. beautiful play not always needed.. And they didn’t outclass us as u said we held them back but the reasons for our loss is pretty simple:
1. Fabregas << I hope he spends the rest of the season on the bench and Ramsy takes his place for the rest of the season as preparation for next season..
2. Bosaka.. How could this stupid referee give that penalty or even red card van persie and not do a thing to Abidal ???!!!
Van persie has an excellent part in the game although he didnt touch the ball much but he kept abidal and bousques and masquirano at the back… you cant ask much from a guy who made a miraculous comeback from an injury..
and for the record for all the position barcelona had in the game all the shots on goal came after the RED CARD!! and they didnt threaten before it!!
OPEN LETTER TO THE REF:
Fuck you, you piece of reffereing shit.
I hope you die a slow and painfull death, you reffereing shit.
May you end up in hell, you piece of reffereing shit.
And FUCK Abidal, Alves & the rest of the fuckers.
Keep it goonerish
The Ref appeared to be looking directly at Valdes shoving Nasri (?) in the face during the same incident. I would have been nice to see them down to 10 for a change.
We always get caught out by reacing, as Robin did with his first yellow whilst the perpetrator of the initial incident gets away scot free.
We should get in first.
As for the game, it’s OK to respect Barca, but they are still only 11 men on a pitch. I’m sure if you stood off any team that is fairly good at passing the ball then you would struggle. We gave them too much space and allowed them to pick their passes too easily.
Difficult to tell how they would react if closed down quicker.
well clearly this ref isnt a fan of arsenal….not even a yellow card?….utter garbage and as an arsenal fan….i’m VERY UPSET *sigh*
Firstly let me say that i am Barca fan,
Secondly i do agree with comments that the ref was a joke and ruined what vould have been a great game, the sending RVP off was a disgrace and you wonder why UEFA let people like him ref such an important game. Lastly i also wanna say that despite all the refs mistakes i do feel that tonight Arsenal were just not in the game, for parts of the entire match it seemed ages before Arsenal even got a touch of the ball and when they did the Barca players won it back almost straight away, i am sure most of you will agree that Barca are just a step up i n class when it comes to simple football and possession. Though there is pro’s to take from the game and that is players such as young Jack are a great prospect of great english talent and i believe in a couple of years it will be Arsenal cleaning up in comps.
Thanks
They may have won but they have very little credibility left as sportsmen left in my eyes.ref, Pedro Messi, Villa, Daniel, Busquets, so many cheating cunts in one football team.
we shouldnt give a f*ck if arsenal win a cup or whatever unless someone in our family plays for dem anyway we should be focusing on what we can achieve in oour lives
however i wont lie it does feel good to be an arsenal fan :DDDD
Match Stats:
Shots 20:0
Time of Possession 76:24
and after that u guys’re saying that u lost because of referee? get real…
@Pastaface
Exactly… But do YOU not realize… that we would have gone through anyways?
No??
3+1 = 4 , 2+2 = 4
… Does away goals ring a bell?
yea double standards all around.. we keep getting slagged that The Arsenal many times fail to convert dominance into 3 points..
here was a typical case of shoe being on the other foot, we did not deserve to win but at 1-1, we were right in it and all to play for.. the same hypocrites who said we did not deserve to win slag us off when we fail to take all 3 points…
bullshit dismissal… killed the game off.. that pass at the end by Wilshere if RVP was there instead of Nik, he would have either smashed it or since it would have likely been on his right foot, he would have toe poked it which would have been enough since Valdes was not set.
why don u ask the guy from Cophenhavn who stoped at the half line when pedro blew thee whistle???
Wenger,Mr.clueless.
Pasta face, we would go through if we lost 3-2!!!!
@Davey Hepburn:
This. We looked like a fooseball table. The balls seemed to bounce off players and when they did actually retain possession they would send an errant pass back to FCB.
BUT. None of that means Arsenal couldn’t have still managed to go through in a 11-11 situation. The game at Emirates was similar and we pulled it out. I mean one goal and we would have went through so no one in their right mind can think the sending off didn’t change the game.
Still we need to stay out of victim mode and get ready for Man U on Saturday. We can still win the FA and BPL.
It’s easy to blame the sending off for the defeat but I don’t think it was as simple as that. They dominated the game and we had 0, that’s right 0 shots on target. The goal was an own goal!!! Right at the end we could have snatched it and that’s the difference between us and teams like Liverpool who have beaten Barcelona before at the Nou Camp playing worse than we did tonight.
In injury time, most teams would have hit the ball long and had everyone in the box but I don’t think these boys understood that another goal would have sent us through.
This current team gets a lot of hype but they’re simply not good enough to compete with Barcelona. We had a team in the days of Henry, Pires, Bergkamp…that team should have won a Champions League. This lot can’t even win a Carling Cup.
@ Danish Gooner
maybe if that dudee from your country (bendtner) scoredd that clear chance, wenger wouldve been the opposite of clueless
@yloops:
You should have told that to Arsenal’s players. By the looks of them they didn’t know.
We had been lucky up until that point and could well have gone through but for that decision. Many seem to conveniently forget that we typically become stronger in the last 15 minutes & Barca weaker. As for the fool who suggested Van P did hear the whistle…I suggest you look again – 1 second after the whistle!! Always uses his left??…Try watching some recent games…
Nonetheless, as I say we had been lucky until then with a doubtful offside in the first game, a clear penalty in the 2nd and a lot of poor finishing. We needed luck to go through and unfortunately our luck ran out – no complaints from me.
This does not disguise the fact that the ref was clearly out of his depth & should not be appointed for such an important game again.
@Dave (dlbags):
agree i do think the sending off changed things but even with 11 v 11 arsenal never really looked like scoring, the goal you’s got was from a Barca player and looking at the stats published after the game clearly show Barca’s dominance in every factor.
Arsenal have a massive game on saturday and in my opinion are still strong candidates for the Prem League
It’s been mentioned before but the vast majority of Barca’s shots on goal came AFTER RVP had been sent off. Yes they dominated possession but really didn’t threaten much until the Swiss genius stepped in. We always hear from the English pundits/press that possession stats tell you nothing about the game, it’s the final score that counts, yet here we see and hear the complete opposite. The same so-called experts creaming themselves over ‘crab’ football, just hope there’s enough tissues in the studios for them to clean themselves down afterwards.
The fact is we won’t spend the money on referees that Barca do … football is corrupt from top to bottom … it is the elephant in the room of world sport … if Barca are in trouble the refs always come to their aid
@GDK and @loops
Er yeh!!!
That’s what I was hoping, 3-2 in the last minute!! We almost did, but B52….
Didn’t deserve to go through but why can’t we have just one game where we played crap and won!
we int saying we werent out played am sure that was a game plan. the ref messed things up thats what we saying.
In 50 years of watching football I’ve never seen a player carded under those circumstances. Would it have made a difference had it been 11 V 11 for the last 35 minutes? As a gooner I’m bound to think so but the travesty is that we’ll never know. In last years quarter final at the Emirates it was a “game of 2 halves”. We were given a footballing lesson in the first half but scored 2 goals in the second. Likewise in the first leg this season. Every week there are games where one team dominates the first 45 minutes & then fails to do so in the 2nd half. Regardless of Barca’s first half performance, possession, meters run, passes completed, shots on or off target, when RVP was sent off Arsenal were winning the contest in the only aspect that matters…goals for at home & away. Up to that point Barca had looked fantastic but were actually losing the tie. So to say that we were going to lose anyway, or that the sending off wasn’t a major contributing factor to the games outcome is as ridiculous as was the sending off.
How the hell does that dickhead Abidal stays on the field but yet our highest chance of a goal scorer gets send off over fuckall…. Barca are nothing but fking clowns who’s acting abilities gets them always the referees attention. A disappointment that a world event is decided by a fking bigger clown with a whistle. Anyway our season goes on , let’s smash United at home and win the league & FA Cup. Gooner forever
The one thing that really annoys me is that week in week out I watch teams come to the Emirates and deliberately waste time from the first minute. In fact, I remember thinking after our home game against Leeds that it was the first time in ages I’d seen an away team not obscenely wasting time. On all of these occasions, despite prolonged and repetitive time-wasting, the referee never took any action. In fact, I cannot remember a single yellow card given to an opposition team for time wasting.
Then in a big game, we are just ahead. We have not tried to waste time and have been very sporting about making sure the game flows without disrupting it. Then we get this kind of decision where it’s clear to everyone that van Persie did not hear the whistle. It’s just exasperating.
I think they must practice this play at Camp Nou……
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/08/article-0-0D87C62C000005DC-341_634x421.jpg
Red card was ridiculous.. as ridiculous as Perie’s head… Good thing that barca bloke did.. was probably explaining persie how messed up he is hehe. It’s a good thing, teams THAT inferior to another one do NTO go through in CL!!!
Refering was poor, But Barcelona was the better team and deserved to win, Arsenal uncharacteristically chose to play defensive, not sure why, ball posession was pathetic, no shots at the goal.
To all those who just don’t get it…Arsenal didn’t go out there to win the game, they went out there to get through to the next round…3-2 and we were through…After Barca scored you could see Arsenal in the second half started to push forward and it was 1-1 shortly thereafter…Oh well…The “Superb” ref just made sure of the result for Barca then didn’t he…All you haters, Man Utd are always looking for more assholes to support them…Please don’t hesitate…
barca deserved to win the first leg ad thefirst leg at the emirates last year but they didnt, deserve to wi and winig are two different things and after 2anda half hours of deserving to win they were losing, until the ref gave them the asist…stats dont lie but neither do facts
We were only outclassed because everytime we got the ball Barcelona were allowed to harrass us in ways that we were not allowed to do to them, Abidal and Alves will get away with murder and Nasri and le Boss will get charges for speaking the truth, with 11 men and a fair ref we would have won the tie, you don’t need more possession to win ties just take your chance x
Could have 15 players on the pitch and it wouldn’t have mattered.
You have to question team selection as well as game plan before the sending off decision. Any fan can tell you that Arshavin is a better player thank Rosicky and did more in the 10-15 minutes than Rosicky did in the 70 mins he was playing.
Too narrow and too deep after 10 mins.
If I’m a defender and I’m surrounded by a number of opposition players, the first thing that comes to mind is booting it up as far as possible especially against Barcelona, at least it will allow you to push up.
Diaby,Fabregas,Rosicky and Nasri also lost out on 50/50 challenges and were unable to close down players in midfield area only Wilkshire did and Song would have had he played. Is there any point in running up the field when you got a goal kick only to let the opposition bring the ball down or head it without challengin for it? After almost every replay Barcelona had the ball.
Unfortunately you can’t really tell if the sending off killed the game. There were 3 mins before the equalising goal and the sending off, and much didn’t happen in between for arsenal. But the yellow card was wrong.
Arsenal didn’t have a shot at goal, and all throughout the 90 mins they were one goal away from winning the tie.
I’m not sure we would be talking about all of this if Bendtner scored that one chance.
@pastaface: Yes maybe we would have lost 3-2, but than we would have won on aggregate, BIG difference!
@Davey Hepburn: Shut up you deg. loving f…! You are just a dirgrace to the human race. How about Abidal, are you sure barca would have won with 10 men? And Messi, how many times did he kick the ball after an offside decision and also a deliberate hand ball. Remeber arsenal were leading the tie 2-1 we needed no goals, barca did and it took them 48 min to get one. Than arsenal needed a goal it took us 6 min to get ours, then the sending off decided the game. Get of this page.
we were well beaten …..get over it
Would just liked to have seen 11 v 11 because as we all know possession dosen’t always win games and fairy tales do not always come true (barca).A large number of arsenal fans felt we could have won that match and we will never know due to a decision i can stomach.
@andrew: You are an obvious glory supporter so you don’t belong trying to justify Barcelona. Spaniards support Spanish teams. You’re a glory supporting cunt, you ruin football.
@Davey Hepburn: Glory supporter. Not a fan. You don’t support a team for the thrill, you support it JUST for the glory with no basis to your support. You’re voice means nothing when you’re a glory supporter.
On about 80 minutes Messi was flagged offside, whistle blue and about 0.8 seconds later he shot and missed. If it’s a matter of 0.2 seconds I would like the ref to make that clear.
I thought the Swiss were meant to be impartial!
These lessons you cannot learn on the training ground, they are learned in the school of hard knocks. Being a champion require rock solid resolve. The will to never give up even when the deck is stacked hard against you! The week is not ended as yet another battle. Now the lads knows what failure feels like. Each Arsenal player must decide if they are happy with the brand “LOSER” from now on. Or now ready for “VICTORY”.
Come on Arsenal show the fans you possess the will to win and they will carry you all the way, even across the finishing line. Now get over yesterday and STAND TALL like MEN! (NEVER GIVE IN)
Will UEFA do anything after seeing this picture!
Of course not!
They are so supportive to barcelona!
But it’s true. It’s the past now!
Let’s move on!
Barcelona has far more quality than us!
Because they’ve played together for longer than our players…
Come on gunners 😀
Ref was a total disgrace.
However, as a squad we did bow down to Barcelona, we went to Camp Nou and went in with the mentality that they were the “big boys”, that is a mentally that needs to be stopped right now, it is the reason why we lose to teams such as Man United and Barca, when we can easily take them out.
Time to stop thinking about this match and move on, the F.A Cup and Premier League is ours, the only thing that is stopping the Arsenal players is themselves.
Dear UEFA,
There seems to be an omission of the following report on your website:
Busacca and Abidal face UEFA disciplinary cases
UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against referee Massimo Busacca and defender Eric Abidal of Barcelona following last night’s UEFA Champions League game at FC Barcelona. Busacca erroneously gave van Persie a second yellow card, awarded a wrong penalty and failed to red card Abidal for violent conduct. Abidal has been charged for violent conduct as he put his hand on van Persies throat.
Thank you for correcting this matter, as it is urgent.
Wenger got it wrong.rvp and cesc should have been on the bench and arshavin and bendtner or chamakh should have started instead.Our 2 main men were not fit enough to play and this was so obvious with cesc after 20mins,he walked through the game and was so ineffective.How long will we miss the 2 of them for now then?.The signs arent good right now as we are now out of 2 competitions and injurys really hitting us,thats a real surprise isnt it as is the likelihood of another trophyless campaign.
The problem that referee’s are making for themselves is that if a player knows he’s going to get booked for anything from a bodycheck to a disgraceful challenge straight through the player you might aswell try to take them out – its the same punishment.
I just wish RVP had landed a decent punch to knock out the ref to give his teamates a chance for the last 40 mins.
Wenger and Nasi getting charged for telling the dipshit of a ref the truth is a joke.
As an arsenal supporter I’m pissed and wish we would have showed a little more effort. In the first half it almost looked as if we were playing for a draw. I mean before rvp got sent off we scored a goal with out even putting a shot on goal.. Hopefully this wont hurt us in the long run
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/197551_199362880081370_100000229775991_726902_6768919_n.jpg
New rule proposed by UEFA!
AS a Barcelona fan ??????? i feel happy by z victory against arsenal.BUT Definitely arsenal could WIN the game if RVS WAS continuing playing DESPITE OF BARCA’S Superiority over z game. Barcelona shows the usual possession nothing is happen other than this BUT in reality possession is NOT enough 2 win the game.the swiss ref makes the game rotten egg( mind u ).
truth is Arsenal didnt deserve to win this one! you know, after going down to 10, most teams actually work harder and arsenal showed that they really are still youngstars with no winning mentality- walking on the pitch and just looking lethargic yet 1 goal would have won it…
How can arsenal win with diaby and rosicky? Bendtner certainly talks better than actually playing.
Abidal is useless French. He was bench warmer last year but cuz of some players are missing he is staying on the pitch. He has to behave like his less quality. Use less!
do u notice something weird!all french players who doest play for arsenal hate us abida evra and gallas but why?lets be real barcelona deserved the win because even the referee didnt award them a penalty for messi.im nt proud if arsenal but im proud of wilkshere.
That foul referee , ABIDAL & Barcelona should be punished .
SHAME TO FASEK REFEREE , ABIDAL & BARCELONA .
Always love to Van Persie .