Barcelona faced Juventus Tuesday evening at Camp Nou in a clash that was touted as deciding the winners of Champions League Group G.
It did. Juventus won 3-0 courtesy of a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo and a goal from Winston McKennie. The Italians had to better Barcelona’s 2-0 victory over them in Turin in October to steal top spot, and they did.
The defeat rankled Ronald Koeman and Jordi Alba, who engaged in heated interactions with the match referee, Tobias Stieler, over decisions the pair perceived as going against Barcelona as picked up by Marca.
Alba was seen to yell at Stieler “you’re bad, you b******!’ in the 27th minute after receiving a yellow card. The left-back did later apologise to him, however, and the referee accepted his apology. Koeman, in a more premeditated move, was heard to tell the German referee “you have good friends in Italy”.
The Dutch coached stressed after the game that Juventus’ first penalty should never have been given and that Barcelona should have had a penalty of their own for a foul on Lionel Messi.
Featured image courtesy of News18.
