'Robbery of the century': Barcelona press react to Madrid vs Juventus
'Real Madrid go through to the semi-finals loyal to their style, with a doubtful penalty in the 93rd minute,' wrote Mundo Deportivo after the UCL quarter-final.
After Barcelona’s surprise elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Roma, the Catalan press turned their attention to a dramatic evening at the Bernabéu. Real Madrid progressed to the semi-finals after Cristiano Ronaldo scored a last-minute penalty to seal a 4-2 aggregate victory over Juventus.
Mundo Deportivo jabs at Oliver and Cifuentes
“Master’s in refereeing”, quipped Mundo Deportivo, an ironic reference to the main news story in Spain this week, which concerns Cristina Cifuentes, the president of the Community of Madrid. Cifuentes has been accused of embellishing her CV to include a Master’s degree that she did not actually do. The tongue-in-cheek inference is that Michael Oliver – the English referee who awarded the late penalty and send of Gigi Buffon – was not qualified to officiate the match.
'Real Madrid go through to the semi-finals loyal to their style, with a doubtful penalty in the 93rd minute,' added the same newspaper.
A story written by Manuel Bruña in Mundo Deportivo caught the attention on Wednesday evening. Bruña initially wrote: “A penalty was what it was, as Benatia mowed down Lucas Vázquez in the last play of the game”. He then changed his appraisal of the penalty to “more than controversial” a couple of hours later.
Meanwhile, Sport referred to Oliver’s decision as the ‘robbery of the century’ on its front page.
