Barca have endured a difficult season and with memories of the now infamous 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich last season still fresh, it appears tensions were high amongst the home side.
Defender Gerard Pique was particularly vocal and was caught on pitchside microphones in a heated discussion with forward Antoine Griezmann while the scores were still level in the first-half.
“Keep the ball, f****** hell, for f*** sake, come on! F****** hell, keep the ball,” he could be heard shouting as Barca organised for a defensive corner.
Griezmann then replied: “Calm down, stop shouting, don’t shout, for f*** sake!” before Pique responded: “F****** hell Grizi, f*** me! No! F*** off, we’re suffering, we’ve been pinned back for five minutes.”
The Frenchman then shouted: “Don’t shout at me! I’m suffering as well,” before goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen stepped in to calm matters down.
It was a hugely disappointing night for Barcelona with manager Ronald Koeman conceding their chances of progressing to the last eight are now slim at best.
“I could tell you lies but the fact is that at 4-1 down from the home leg, there are very few chances of going through,” he said afterwards.
“This match shows us how much we have to improve, particularly at Champions League level.”
Koeman’s opposite number Mauricio Pochettino was understandably far more upbeat.
“There are 90 minutes left and they have great players. There’s still a second leg,” he said.
“Perfection doesn’t exist. I’m happy with the result and performance, but we have to stay humble. We have a big match against Monaco on Sunday and we’re already thinking about that.”
The second leg will take place in Paris on 10 March.
Discussion about this post