"They took it away from us!" – Jose Luis Mendilibar fuming after Barcelona clash

After the third round Champions League match, where Barcelona hosted Greek side Olympiacos, visiting coach Jose Luis Mendilibar was left furious with the officiating led by Urs Schnyder.

Details: Following the Champions League encounter in which Barcelona demolished Olympiacos 6-1, the Greek club’s manager, Jose Luis Mendilibar, openly criticized the referees’ performance. To recap, Olympiacos conceded a penalty after being reduced to ten men when Schnyder sent off midfielder Santiago Essé.

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I don’t understand the second yellow card. You have to do much more to get booked for that. And on top of everything, there was the penalty against us, which led to the third goal.

When you play at this stadium, you get nothing. In our case, they actually took it away from us.

Mendilibar also voiced his frustration with the use of VAR, explaining that the technology could not intervene in Essé’s sending off since it was for a yellow card.

In the end, you ask them to review, but they can’t even look.

Finally, the head coach expressed his outrage at the penalty from which Lamine Yamal scored Barcelona’s third goal.

I saw the same replay as the referee. At first I said, 'That’s a penalty.' But then, when I saw that he didn’t reach the ball, the goalkeeper completely pulled his hands away.

It’s another thing if the opponent touched my goalkeeper—I don’t know—but my goalkeeper didn’t touch the opponent, I’m absolutely convinced.

VAR said nothing. Down to ten men and 3-1, the game was already over.

Despite acknowledging Barcelona’s superiority, Mendilibar believes that key refereeing decisions had a massive impact on the outcome, which he feels was unjust for his team.

See also: "Such situations don't happen by accident." - Antonio Conte comments on 6-2 defeat to PSV