Mourinho Says Referees Favour Barca, Albiol Rues Crazy Red Card, Pique Thinks they should have been Two while Adebayor Labels Barca ‘Cry Babies’ - Have your Say

There have been sharp reactions from the Real Madrid and Barcelona camps following Wednesday night’s Champions League encounter at the Bernabeu. As expected, Pepe’s red card, which surely was the turning point of the game, has especially drawn out contrasting and heated reactions from both camps. I picked out a few reactions from Barca and Real players as well as Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. What’s your take? Have your say by leaving comments on the comments section.

Mourinho’s was clearly baffled

“But I just do not understand why Barcelona always receives the help of the referee. All my life I will be asking myself this question, and one day I hope to receive an answer. I don't understand why Barcelona have this power. It happened two years ago to Chelsea (in the 2009 semi-finals), almost to my Inter last year, and also to Arsenal this year… Why do the opponents of Barcelona always have a man sent off?"

Cristiano Ronaldo Backed his Coach

"It's always the same with them [Barcelona]. This is the fourth consecutive season that something like this has happened. Mourinho is right, just look at what happened with Arsenal, Chelsea and Inter.”

And so did Xabi Alonso

"Until the sending off we had not seen anything new from Barcelona. Referees need to make these decisions more carefully because it's a Champions League semi-final and the score at the time was tied.”

Albiol rues a ‘crazy’ red card

'The referee has decided the game. It was the only major decision. The red was crazy."

Gerard Pique thinks it should have been 2 reds for Madrid

“The red card (Pepe’s) was a red card. He tackled really strong and for Daniel Alves it could be painful and after that there was another reaction, I think Marcelo against Pedro – it was another red card. The referee can’t see it, but I think that finally we are really happy for the win and we’ve taken a really good step to go to the final.” 

Barca midfield engine Xavi thinks Real got lucky in Copa del Rey

"We got the result that we deserved. We were again superior. We're a team that wants to play attacking football and have fun on the pitch. They (Real Madrid) are just hoping that we'll make mistakes. That worked in the Copa del Rey final, but not this time.” 

Guardiola reserved praise for Messi

"We are lucky to have Messi. At the age of 23, he's the third top scorer in our club's history and that's impressive… We have to recover for (Saturday's) league match and the second leg next Tuesday, but we are not at Wembley yet.”

Adebayor thinks Barca is made of ‘cry babies’

"Football is a game of men. Whenever you play against Barcelona, whenever you touch them, they are on the floor crying like a baby. Whenever you make contact in a 50-50 they are on the floor, crying, putting their hand over their face, and their manager, their fans, they are always crying.

But Afellay’s baby dream came true

"This really is an incredible feeling. This is the kind of stuff you dream about when you're a kid. Making the difference in such a huge game between two arch rivals is simply fantastic. It was a nice individual action.”

San Iker Bite his tongue

“We can only keep quiet, bite our tongues and think about the second leg," Casillas said to AS. "It is going to be very, very difficult, but when we get there we will try to recover from this position."

While Mascherano looks ahead to next encounter

"I'm very content with the outcome from this match, but this doesn't change anything about the second leg. There is another game to be played and Real Madrid are a very strong team that will do their utmost to turn things around."

Pele reserved praise for himself

"For me Pele is the best. Nobody has done more than Pele. He's the only player to be World Champion at 17, winning three World Cups and score over 1,208 goals."

What’s your say?

And That's thesteifmastertake!!