José Luis Mendilibar, Spanish coach in Olympiacos, who took the Greek team to UEFA Conference League victory in 2024 (and Sevilla to their seventh Europa League in 2023) was angered by the referee decisions in Tuesday's 6-1 defeat against FC Barcelona in Champions League. The match was 2-1 in the second half, but a succession of a penalty and a red card after a second yellow card meant the debacle of the team. And Mendilibar doesn't think it should have happened.
"You've all seen it, haven't you? As soon as we got into the game, they took us out, without doing anything wrong. The mistakes were made by others", he said, talking about the referee, whose decisions of showing them a second yellow card is "incomprehensible".
"I saw the same image as the referee. At the last moment, the goalkeeper shrank his arms, and I'm sure he didn't touch the opponent. It's a different matter if the opponent touched my goalkeeper. The VAR would have agreed."
"From being able to play the game, to being taken out. From being able to be 2-1 up and making Barcelona's life difficult, suddenly, with two bad decisions, they took us out. Anyone who sees the score in two days, 6-1, will say, 'What a rout they've had.'
Mendilibar goes on, suggesting that referee decisions always benefit Barça, even remembering times where he faced Barcelona in 2017/18 and went from winning 0-2 to losing 4-2. "It is impossible for me to win here", he added. This result leaves Olympiacos at the bottom of the table, 32 out of 36, having only won one point from a draw, and having only scored one goal so far in the competition.