Luis Enrique slammed Jesus Gil Manzano for his “strange and incomprehensible” refereeing at Malaga but insisted Barcelona’s 2-0 defeat was “completely unfair”.
Enrique was referring to the “clear penalty” on Sergi Roberto, which was instead given as a free kick, and Gil Manzano’s perceived double standards but made it clear Barca “deserved to win” and were not giving up on the La Liga title just yet.
“La Liga is a bit more difficult now. It’s a missed opportunity, but there’s still a lot of the League to go,” the Coach said after the game.
“I have nothing to criticise my players for. I’m always delighted with my players’ execution and fight, but more so today.
“We faced a team that sat deep but were fresh. I think we deserved to win because we created chances, but when they went 1-0 up, everything became much more difficult.
“Malaga scored with the only chance they had in the first half, a mistake of ours in the offside trap. The result was completely unfair.
“There was a clear penalty for us, I don’t know how [the referee] could signal outside the box.
“Yellow cards? It’s strange that a team that don’t usually kick out were shown so many cards in an incomprehensible way.
“In addition, there were opposition players that distributed [fouls] throughout the game and didn’t receive a card. It’s strange, but we’re used to it.
“The referee’s decisions? He didn’t know, he didn’t answer.”
