Heavy pressure is currently being mounted on UEFA for the replay of the Barca-PSG Champions league encounter which recorded controversial incidents.
Barca players celebrating Sergio Roberto’s winning goal against PSG
A petition demanding that Barcelona’s Champions League second leg match with PSG be replayed has garnered over 200,000 signatures online according to a recent update by Goal.com as at 10:11am, 13th of March, 2017 – Nigerian time.
Barcelona overcame a four-goal deficit from the first leg in Paris to triumph 6-1 in the Nou Camp and book their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The match, which saw Barcelona score three goals in the last five minutes, was hailed as ‘the greatest comeback in football history’ as Sergi Roberto’s stoppage time finish capped off a miraculous performance.
But one Real Madrid fan has demanded the tie be replayed due to the performance of referee, Deniz Aytekin. Aytekin was heavily criticised for his performance in the Nou Camp after he gave two controversial penalties for Barcelona and turning down PSG’s appeals for a spot-kick when Javier Mascherano slid in on Angel Di Maria.
Real Madrid fan, Luis Melendo Olmedo, has set up the petition on change.org and has asked that Uefa strike the result from the record.
Olmedo cites “incidents that seriously damaged PSG as a result of the German referee Deniz Aytekin, who gave Barcelona an advantage with his refereeing decisions” as the inspiration behind the petition.
Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano admitted he had fouled Di Maria in the penalty area with the Argentine closing in on goal.
“I made contact with Di María. It’s obvious it was a foul. I’m not going to lie about it,” he told Spanish newspaper AS.
Despite the number of people who have already signed the petition, the absence of any such appeal from PSG means there is no prospect of UEFA ordering an unprecedented replay.
Barcelona’s hopes of winning La Liga were dealt a devastating blow on Sunday evening as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to 17th placed Deportivo La Coruna.
Luis Enrique was forced to make five changes to the team that beat PSG on Wednesday as Alex Bergantinos’s 74th minute goal was enough to consign the defending champions to a shock defeat.
The result leaves Barcelona one point clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table, but Zinedine Zidane’s side have two games in hand and will replace their rivals as La Liga leaders with a victory on Sunday evening.
