Barcelona – Arsenal Match Thread

306 comments? I feel like a stranger in my own house.

You Arsenal fans are a bunch of haters aren't you...
Listen, RVP's red card might have been harsh, but think of it like this: IF he was on no yellow card and had done the same thing, he would have got a yellow, so the ref carried out his job perfectly...
There can be so many if's and buts, but at the end of the day, same thing goes for the other team as well...
-if abidal hadn't got sent off in chelsea...
-if the ref would have seen one of the four penalty's in the chelsea game,
-if Messi's headed goal inn London had counted
-If one of the handballs in the box in the first leg had counted...
so many if's and but's but it aint gonna do shit cus you guys are out...again, and we're in the CL quarter's idiots...
Listen, a team with arsenal's quality should have at least a couple of shots on goal, but you guys had 09, so much for a fucken attractive, attacking team...
How come your defender didn't get a second yellow card for the penalty incident..
you guys were let off the hook just as much as we were..
GET FUCKEN USED TO IT!!!!!
-you guys aren't good enough, mentally or physically...
WENGER IS A PEDOPHILE!!!!
YOu guys can keep Fabregas...we'll keep Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Affelay, Masch(<3), and Keita...
-You guys can keep fabregas...we'll take the trophies...
trophies where are goalie wont fumble simple shits...(CARLING CUP COUGH COUGH)
Pathetic bastards, we beat you guys, now go for what you can...
and yo guys...A LOT of Barca fans wants Arsenal to win the PL, because we value entertainment more than anything...OK
Good game
and take it easy...
oh ya: and wilshere's overrated...

GLORIOUS BARTHA - winning trophies with 12 men - hahahhahahahaha stars next to your trophies boy... no one wants it like that, buncha fuken cheats... fuk your team go back to lisping on your own sites no give a shit about you here

LOLED at such anger :)))) *interisti here

wanna joke from uefa : rvp red card

Typical EPL whiners. You got help from the ref too, Wilshere did a MASSIVE acting job in the first half, RVP tried to influence the ref on a corner when he knew it went off his foot (right before his neck was beautifully grabbed by Abidal). Say what you will about Barca, but you guys have absolutely nothing to hold over their heads when it comes to class. Your league isn't that great, but whenever anyone loses, there has to be some excuse, usually something amusing like "Sepp Blatter <whimper> he..<whimper> ... DOESN'T LIKE US!! <sobbing>" You guys got exactly what you deserved, you're not on Barca's level and they outplayed you. Thoroughly. End of story. Now stop crying emasculated English tears and move on with your lives. You've still got plenty of time to win that comically overrated league of yours. </sobbing></whimper></whimper>

12 men Bartha thats your new nickname... GLORIOUS BARTHA and the Ref win the CL, bunch jokers... whats sad is that you believe your bullshit and you justify your referee backed win with the very statistic (20 shots on goal etc.) he helped foster by giving us yellows for the same fouls he gave you nothing for.

Glorious Bartha: some teams play beautifully, some play like thugs, BARTHA invented a new way to win - they just show up with 12 men LMAO

And the fan of the English team, for his reply, goes to........accents? Really? That's where you want to go? Accents? An interesting choice to say the least.

i take back my comment on barca being the new arsenal lite -after seeing that performance i like to say that arsenal are the new inter-lite

I think Barca style of play is just taking full advantage of the passive offside rule. This is just impossible to defend unless you pack all your players in the box. They need to change this rule because it's not a balanced rule between offense and defense. And it was created in order to have more goals in games but really it is awful to see especially in this game tonight when the players are doing cat-and-mouse game. And also I still wonder how the touchline referee can have a look at several players at the same moment figuring out who is onside or not. Is there actually a rule against players going back from outside position to onside? I've seen so many Barca players doing this during the game.

First, lets make a vow as decent human beings that if we win a game under controversial circumstances, even if we do clearly out play the opponent (as Barca did today), that we will not immediately go to websites of fans of the opposition to try to explain to them that they should simply be "logical" and graciously except the loss within hours after the game.

What sort of person thinks they should take it upon himself to explain to opposing fans why they deserve whatever they are suffering? So if Barca fans want us to acknowledge they are a great team fine; if they want us to say that means the "red card" doesn't matter and if the situation was reversed they would say the same thing then please please go away.

Now some game comments. I have watched Barcelona a fair bit and what impressed me about them today was how well they tackled. They won almost every 50/50 ball knocked some very skilled Arsenal players off the ball, and quite frankly contributed greatly to us playing a brand of football that looked nothing like the Arsenal football that we love. I don't think the game plan was to play the way we did nearly so much as Barcelona closing us down very efffecitively and then being so good when they had the ball forced us into a
style we are unsuited to.

Yes because they had the ball so much we were forced to foul more than they did. But I suspect if professional refs were to watch the game tape with the card calls removed from the presentation (as refs sometimes do while training), very few would have that game come out 5 yellow cards to 0.

The Van Persie red card is quite simply a horrible horrible call. If you look at our past games against Barcelona and both goals and shots increase significantly in the final 30 minutes. Obviously, that part of our game plan, take advantage when any opponent (even the great Barca) can't be quite so efficient because of fatigue was lost due to being down to 10 men. So yes we did not get shots, but we were playing with 10 men including the loss of our world class striker so shots were going to be hard to come by.

The loss of young Chesney in goal was painful, but full marks to Almunia who played well in difficult circumstances. I really hope he is able to return but seeing Almunia in net when we win the Premier League title would also bring a certain satisfaction. Champions League is always a long shot for any team but I really think we are in great position in the EPL. Let's hope the injury news is good.

Thanks again for providing such a great forum Sairax and The Martin.

You english need to accept that everybody else in the entire world hates you. Get used to it.

I'm Canadian.

I'm not English :(

hahahaha but you need to know my language right BITCH hahahahaha

Poor english bitches. Arsenal fans need to accept that they support a comedy team. A team of losers. You are losers and you will always be losers.

better Arsenal than 12 man Bartha fukface - how about Inter, I think I like what they did you last year

You should be bowing to your masters. We pity you. You are pathetic.

12 man Bartha - in a league of their own; the only league where football is played by teams of 12 lady boys and the goal is to win an Oscar haha

You know, now that I think about it, how much better would we have played with Denilson instead of Diaby? I don't like Denilson at all, but seeing how he usually struggles against big, physical, imposing teams, unlike Barca, you'd have to think he would perform better than usual today in regaining possesion and giving it to Cesc or Rosicky.

Been reading a little more.
We were, correct me if wrong, one goal away from going through because of the away goals rule?
If so, my comment would be on AW:
- Diaby and Rosicky in MF...really? with a little better one, maybe one more goal would have happened?
- When asked about buys, AW always answers that we dont need X or Y, and then sends some on loans. One advice I got as a kid was always aim for more than you want because humans are only humans, things that you cant ctrl happen...wel AW aim for more pls...even if we win the EPL and I get shut up by AW and the team, my guess is that in key moments ALL things happen.
Even if the penalty call was ceazy , even if the sent off was crazy, we were so close that thinking back those facts hurt...really do.

Hey Martin Sairax cant there be like a private room for gooners only so we can blow our steam off and speak our frustrattions without people coming here to beat us when we are down?

HAHAHA getting talked shit to while you're down is what being a football fan is all about my good man ;) - I wouldn't miss it for the world.

haha yeah I even get into it at times, but i actually wasnt saying to avoid that, but to have a quiet private time to go retrospective without tehese morons knowing how we feel.

As a neutral, I'm just going to say that I find everything about Barcelona incredibly irritating.
While everyone fawns over them and their beautiful play, they bore me to death with their 300-move passes which end up with nothing generally. They are also one of the WORST teams in terms of finishing -- the amount of chances they had throughout the two legs; it's appalling that they didn't get more goals.
I was rooting for you guys. Anyway, good luck for the weekend.

How the fuck can you be a neutral if you were supporting Arsenal? Moron.

means he isn't a supporter of either of the teams, even though he was leaning towards Arsenal he didn't care if Bartha won - boy you are about as sharp as bowling ball aren't you fukface

true...lol

morons both of you, how can someone not be a neutral and cheer for one single time???is it forbidden? oh yeah you are Barza fans....maybe in Catalonia it is jajahahahahjajja

Rejoice my friends, for we lost to the best team in the world, and we lost honorably.

ye we lost honorably - at least we didn't have help.

Good try but...no

Good try but...yes?

Sometimes I think us football fans have the smallest brains on the planet. So many small-minded people on here and other forums.

That call on RvP was absolute garbage, no questions, and it really affected the game. But, but, we didn't have a shot on net the entire game. We didn't deserve to score, and we didn't deserve to win. Full stop.

But piss off, trolls.

haha well said - in the end we were outplayed, I don't think anyone is really disputing that. The ANNOYING question was why did Bartha have to dive around so much and enlist the help of the ref to such an extent.

You can't help but ask if the ref had only been neutral... we might have had a bit more luck in terms of possession, etc. - i think thats all people are saying.

JUst name one from here, from this blog. Cause I dnt even k now how to get there.

i think the explanation comes from the 2 teams you mention, and no offence but just because your remark of the 5 years, your wish becomes like a bad joke...I was going to thank you for it, but to rub in our faces the last 5 years would be like if i recalled you that not long ago...you didnt even played the UCL...

I think if I had to pick, I'd prefer the Stoke trolls over the Barca trolls.

This lot might not be racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and possibly fascist like Stoke trolls... but despite that I totally agree with you.

Even with the appalling ref decisions, here is the truth the gooners fans would like to ignore.

1. wenger messed up by finishing 2nd in group.
2. fab and rvp were not fit, why play them, and with your main GK out for the season again questions will be raised as to why he doesnt buy in transfer market.
3. why start with rosiky when arshavin played better in last few games
4. why defend like inter or chelsea when arsenal are not a defending team. 10 men behind ball and 0 shots on target especially after wenger slated inter last year for doing same thing.

ewell i am a gooner fan and vefore reading ypurs i posted these comments

"after wenger slated inter last year for doing same thing." What makes it even worse is that Wenger only had a 1 goal lead, and we had an away goal. Moronic from Wenger

supposed to be a reply to whinge city below...disqus

IF it hadnt happened Barza would have lost...yeah IFS suck

Appalling game from the referee, good god. Give credit to Barcelona for absolutely dominating the game, though. Our defense held firm until we were reduced to 10 men. Still, Cesc looked unfit, Jack is carrying something, and Nasri was really the only dynamic player we had. Badly missed Walcott, as Barca come up and really played into the midfield. Theo's pace would have opened them up easily, I think.

I havent seen it, didnt see the game...but.

well, been there felt that.
I havent read over here but been informed by pals all around, and apparently they didnt actually outplayed us until the ref decided he was a cule, lots of people around here disgusted.
Thk God, I decided not to watch, as I saw something like this coming.
Two ways of feeling for me: either their B team defenders are better than thought/ or AW should read better and fore seee that when finishing 2nd in a group stage...anything can happen, it isnt the same to face the BCF at this tage than later, after beating another 2nd team, cause lets face it, the media will always say that we were just a 2nd positon team, as well as Shaktar passed.
I really wish we could do something about this particular trophy, because its a MUST to have it.
And not every year we will be in the same group as these teams that we dont take advantage of, what if we get ina group with Bayern Inter and one B team the level of Shaktar?
All UCL winners have had help from above to reach, its only the fct that we re not in that elite that makes it so darn normal for media and refs.
Its on the team to change that view.
A friend told me that the ref shouldnt have sent RvP off. Granted, but again, they will always do that when facing teams like Barza, it is like that. But we then should not have one guy (and I do think he was the guy to score a 2nd and end it) to beat an entire team; I stand by my previous points that we should have more than one true 9 and more depth in general next time a market is open.
I wish I could say lets turn the page and move on, but so far I cant.
I just hope this was not as psychologically shocking for the team as it is for me (psychis, emotional, because de facto I knew this was coming), and that they can hold the pace at the EPL and finally give us something.
Will be travlling around for most of March and April so wont be here as much, you re all saved from my pessimist comments.. ;(

barca still should have never advanced past my beloved Chelsea in 2009. If today's game was bad, that game was a "!@#$% disgrace." Barca always receives the UEFA love, nobody can dispute that.

And you can't prove that!

and you cant prove that!

I look forward to the day when chelsea gets knocked out of CL for NOT balancing the books due to the new rules, 140m in debt and rising.

OK, they did out-play us (possession stats clearly show that) as would be expected at NC. They commanded the midfield and didn't even let us get a shot on goal. So the better team won. But despite all that possession and fancy passing around, it took a moment of Messi magic for them to finally break through just before 1/2 time, so our defence can be pretty satisfied with their performance, as can Almunia. Nasri and Jack put in a solid shift throughout, and had it not been for an atrocious decision on RvP, it might well have been game-on for the second half. Even if Pedro was looking for the penalty, I don't think we can have many complaints about it - just a shame for Kos as he had another decent game and he and Djourou seem to have a good understanding. But this wasn't a vintage Barcelona performance by a long shot and had we had more impact in midfield (Diaby ? Cesc ?) could have been a different story altogether.
Hope no injuries for Saturday and that we aren't feeling tired legs. ManUre will have had a quiet week's rest to chew over their defeat to Liverpool, an they'll be at home. Need to be up forit if we are going to get a result from this one.

Dont pretend to be Inter when your not, your team cannot defend especially with 10 men -simple as that.

RVP call was a fucking disgrace, but in the first leg there was a lot of fucking disgraces too i.e. Barca getting a legit goal called off. I wish you guys the best of luck in the FA Cup and the EPL. The CL is Barca's sorry.

i thought we were doing well (almunia and defense were solid, we were a goal ahead on agg) until RVP got sent off in the most ridiculous way. how was he supposed to hear the whistle immediately with 90 000 people whistling at the same time ffs.
in the words of didier drogba...it's a disgrace, it's a fucking disgrace!

Great job by the boys. I PROUD to be an Arsenal fan. Some teams have to get their without the refs to lean on but at least our victories are our own.

GOONS FO LYF!

im glad your proud with 0 shots on target, even zaragoza gave a better game to barca in weekend, out of 2 competitions in a week, youll be out of the FA cup as well and well see about the league.

"This is just me being a pessimist, but I suspect that you are wrong that people won't start complaining that referees hate Arsenal at the first chance they get. But this is three times in recent games (Wolves, Barca, Birmingham) where our opposition has been denied a goal or penalty due to a bad call, so I do think, objectively, that it should definitely put the "referees hate Arsenal" stuff to bed."

-Martin, Arsenal Offside Blogger

I sincerely wish you guys the best in the league and the FA Cup.

Not to be rude, but we don't need your best wishes - no one is saying we never get calls - but if you can look at this game and say to yourself that the ref wasn't your 12th man then fine; we lost so we look like sore losers. Whatever.

Don't worry though, UEFA refs support UEFA's favorites, it won't be long before Madrid or United become the new you and all of a sudden you find yourselves on the short side - what come around brother...

"Not to be rude, but we don't need your best wishes"

Looking back the last five years, my best wishes sure wouldn't hurt. Not to be rude.

"if you can look at this game and say to yourself that the ref wasn't your 12th man then fine"

There was a legal goal for us discounted at the Emirates. If you can look at that match and think that the ref didn't absolutely save you then, then good on you.

"UEFA refs support UEFA's favorites"

Is that why they sent off Abidal when we played Chelsea? Or why a last minute goal by Bojan against Inter was discounted for a non-existent handball? Please explain these data in light of your UEFA ref hypothesis.

LMAO PLEASE, AS A BARCA PLAN, DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE CHELSEA GAME.

BARCA FANS ARE TRULY DISGUSTING.

And your hollow wishes do not do jackshit.

What a loser. Loser. Loser. Loser. Loser.

Dude, we get it, you know how to write the word...loser was it?

If you want to win due to a ref, and gloat due to a ref, than go ahead.

But the gloating is as empty as your 'best wishes'.
Meaningless win.

Okay let's talk bad calls.
1. Diaby, foul. PK/FK on edge of the box.
2. Koscielny right before that PK, if Messi goes down.
3. RVP sent off was very harsh, but he doesn’t see that second yellow if he didn’t see the first. It was clearly for a number of dissent-related incidents. That didn’t effect the outcome though. He wasn’t tracking back, he was playing up top and not defending. Doesn’t affect us.
4. How many PKs were we denied before finally getting one?
5. Koscielny concedes a PK, but doesn’t get a yellow? If RVP doesn’t go off he should’ve and would’ve.
6. Gooners before you complain think about what went against us. a) Messi’s goal wrongfully disallowed, b) AA handball c) Djorou handball on messi’s goal d) Messi PK.

First leg we got robbed of a goal that was 100 percent legit and onside. Remember?
Barcelona deserved to go through. We played football. 20 shots to 0.

Pyro, your attempts to be reasonable are bound to fall on deaf ears here. The mutant mouth-breathers on this forum can only think in terms of binary-oppositions: Arsenil good, duh Barça bad.

Pity them, they support a team of losers. That makes them losers. It's sad really.

You know I think Arsenal are the most vile, defensive team to visit the Camp Nou this season. They make no effort to attack, have ZERO shots on target, and then their partially-evolved, australopithecine supporters whine and claim injustice.

Arsenal have lost all their credibility as an attacking force for good in football. They are cheap hackers who sit and wait for errors. What an unpalatable spectacle. Arsenil are the Stoke City of the CL. It is a privilege to humiliate such garbage. Again.

No list all the dives and fouls your side committed without getting a single yellow - RvP got choked in front of the ref with NOTHING being done... Nasri tripped while brekaing on the counter (same fould as Kos, for which Kos got a Yellow)... i would be banned for spamming if I started listing every offense.

Of course its going to be 20 to 0; what idiot would play offense with the ref in the other side's pocket?

agreed. plus anyone who watches Barca play knows that the only real divers are Busquets and Iniesta (at times). Watch Messi, the little guy never goes down even when he's clearly been fouled. Coming from the team of Fabregas, RvP, and Chamakh, who dive just as much, calling us whiny diving bitches is comical. You got outplayed, again. Have some self-respect and admit you got beat by the best side in the world.
The ref absolutely blew that call, but like Pyro said, Koscielny is gone later if RvP stays. If refs were perfect, the first leg would have been very different. Sac up, you were lucky it was only 3-1.

Visca Barca.

Arsenil the queens of catenaccio! :-D

dont know dude, aside from that final vs manu there is always the talk about decisions with barza...just sayin..

this one demands all arsenal fans who is calling this game "unfair defeat" to respond.

read the posts above - its all been responded to... line by line almost. I dont even know what he is talking about 2 handballs... watching the Shaktar Roma game or what?

notice how he brushes off the RvP sending off - LMAO

IF ARSENAL SUPPORTERS CAN TELL ME THEY DESERVED TO WIN THAT GAME THEN I DARE THEM TO ARGUE WITH ME. ITS EASY TO BLAME REFS, LOOK AT YOUR OWN TEAM FIRST.

argghhhhhhh CAPS LOCK ATTACK!!!! someone help me LMAO ...

not as along as you plan to argue in caps... that shit is annoying.

ok no caps

There is no such thing as 'deserving' or 'not deserving'. There is only 'win' or 'lose'.

How many shots did Inter get last year against Barca? Surely no more than 4..and yet they won. Did they not deserve to win?

The bottom line is that, had the ref acted fairly, we may have went through. If it was RVP instead of Bendtner, who can say whether or not he would've scored iwht that chance? Barca dominated the game tonight, but they may have been unlucky or profligate, wasting chances by the bucketload (they did waste a lot of chances)..who knows what would have happened. I just cannot agree that Barca deserved to win just because they played better.

still 4 more shots than you guys and inter played with 10 men for 75mins.

if there is only win or lose, then youve been losing past 6 years and lets forget about the type of football youve been playing.

even before the sending off of RVP arsenal were parked in own half, rvp and fabregas shouldnt have played anyway.

Probably not, they were unfit.

And I'm saying they had no more than 4 shots..not sure the exact stats, but they might even have had 4.

And 1 good chance, is better than 10 wayward shots am I right?
Statistics don't tell the whole story.

And if you call coming 3rd losing, than sure.
My point being that there is no 'deserving' or 'undeserving' for single games..but if you want to twist my words than fine. Barca fans will be Barca fans.

YOU GOT ROBBED BY THE REF?! WATCH THE FIRST LEG AND YOU'LL SEE WHO REALLY GOT ROBBED. TWO HANDBALLS IN THE BOX? THAT'S TWO PENALTIES. PLEASE, We dove today? I didn't see a single dive today. Pedro's penalty was legit as hell. All three goals were 100% by the rules. The Van Persie sending off was harsh but you could argue that he should have been sent off earlier for smacking Dani Alves in the face ON PURPOSE! The better team won today 20 shots on goal vs 0. Admit it. We are a better team. I won't stand for you idiots disrespecting my team.

wah them barca sunglasses work huh... bet u didnt see abidals clear sending off, or that messi was outside the box and diaby was inside the box( and it was damn clear he dived)... other than that i had my arsenal glasses on and didnt see it all or maybe it didnt just happen...

RVP not playin affects ur team cause ur whole team can push up u idiot... u saying that rvp getting a red doesnt affect us is bs, cause we can always make a few passes to him and ur back line is under attack but when rvp isnt there ur back line pushes up and holds a high line...

Why not send abidal on cause i mean he wasnt attacking for u guys was he? so it wudnt affect u right?? wat a stupid arguement u make...
and trust me, if a barca player thought it wud have been a penalty than they wud have dived...from the first minute xavi started diving-- clichy didnt even touch him... did u see how many turns villa took and than just started walking normally lol..

did u see how badly wilshere was being hit all arnd the park??

ps u say u have so many chances...there are players called goalkeepers and they play to... ours had a great game so dont come saying u wasted chances... its more like ur goal had a good game and was solid... its not like u go to the goal and shot the ball out did u?
u guys were out done and out smarted by our goalie only for the ref to help yall out!!!!

a best team in the world dont need a ref to send off the one guy that scared the hell out of your team buddy.
and from what I read not even that was enough, a penalty was invented apparently...

Fuk your team, I'll disrespect a diving lady-boy side like that all day long. This is an Arsenal site, wtf are you doing here - go say you didn't see a single dive on your own page - You want to talk about Alves - he should've been sent off for putting his hands on RvP - how about that one. Go fuken cry about how Fab should be on your team and how you should pay half of what he's worth.

you know what, you should firstly ask your own gooners supporters to kindly stop going to the barca offsite site and throwing abuses there before asking the barca supporters here to get lost.

Speak to them then yourself, am I their father or something? I don't go to barca sites nor do I know anyone who goes there.

Tell them what I told you when you see them on a barca sites then - but don't tell me what to do about other people. All I know is what I do and what I see you do ;)

no one said the better team didn't win, when it was 1-1 barca was still the significantly better team... we got robbed because we could have made a game of it and the corrupt ref sent off our main striker. Possession was already difficult, but every time we would make a tackle the ref would blow his whistle. The ref made a difficult game exponentially harder for us, and the fact that you guys still only beat us by a mere one goal aggregate difference doesn't say much about your finishing abilities... and one a day were your finishing isn't near to par is a day we could have stolen a second goal and advanced on away goals... so yes, we got robbed

our finishing? we're on course to set scoring records in a league that has featured some of the most prolific goal scorers in footballing history. Messi has 45 goals in this season already, 47 last year. He managed to bang 4 home against you last year with incredible ease. You didn't get robbed, you got tuned up. Maybe you should learn to hold a lead, you must be having nightmares of Newcastle, Barcelona-lite.

Visca Barca.

beat us by a goal... scored only 2 vs us in 150 mins a play 11 vs 11 and 2 against us 11 vs 10 in 30 mins a play... while we scored 3 vs yall 11 vs 11... so that shows you who is more prolific and how badly the ref messed up the game...

You could argue that Abidal should have been sent off for grabbing Wilshere (I think it was?) by the neck.

Yes, the goals were fine, no argument here. I'm not sure what you're talking about with handballs in the box though.

Yes Abidal could've been sent of by the ref as well for grabbing VAN PERSIE!!!!! Your a Arsenal fan right?? Did you watch the game?

So basically you guys say Barca cheated 3 seasons now in UCL. So what!! What can you do?? All Refs in the world should just our team right.
But anywho theses 2 legs were amazing footy!! Arsenal-Barca should've been a final. I still root for Arsenal in the EPL.

No one is commenting on you past CL successes dude, and no one wants to take them away - what we are saying is that the refereeing in this game was a disgrace and a comedy of divers from your side who might have been under the impression that their theatric prowess would not only win them a CL but an Oscar to boot.

If you think the refereeing was ok then idk what game you were watching and in what way you can justify 5 yellow cards and a red and NOTHING for your side - especially since I thought Arsenal's play towards you was fairly respectful.

As a side, barca and their fans, have clearly forgotten or not experienced what its like to play against a team and a ref and so you keep quoting 20 shots on goal versus 0 - but when you play against a ref who allows players to foul you on the break then of course you not going to defend.

You won, fine but how much of the win is to be credited to the ref is a different story.

I really thought that Arsenal and their fans are more classy than what I see here. Especially when I recall how they brand Barca "Classless" every now and then, they should really be "Classy". It's still 4-0, and 20 shots vs 0 shot.

While I fully agree that the call on RVP was horrible, you cannot deny the simple facts: ZERO shots on goal (the one shot on goal came from Busquet's error). Don't even get me started on Diaby's blatant foul on Messi inside the box that went uncalled, not to mention the erroneous offside call in the first leg and the two handballs inside the box. I have massive respect for Arsenal and hope you win the EPL, and you played the hell out of us, but we were simply the superior team this evening.

Didnt see the game, but Arsenal is usally the superior team when we lose.
Why then need a so called penalty?
All I say is it sint being the superior team the reason for winning.
Especaially with the talent barza has.

easy to be the better team when you've got the ref to lean on - i could beat any side with a high school team if you give me the ref on my side. You played well but I like I said - how much of that is due to confidence in how the ref will make his decision - I'm proud to say Arsenal don't have advantages like that; and no if we got some call in the first leg it was NOTHING like 5 yellows and a marshmellow red in exchange for NO yellow cards lmao.

Diaby's fault on Messi? Ok there was contact but if you look carefully Messi was already falling (he had both feet off the ground) even before Diaby touched him. This is what we call a dive.

u guys were superior no doubt abt that... but it took a dubious penalty and a sending off for u guys to make the break thru... even if u create chances and dont take them than it aint arsenals fault its ur own.. on the contrary how many bad tackles did barca make and still got away without a card..

abidal choked rvp and the ref saw it... considered dissent and a red but wat did abidal get.. nothing.. and rvp go his 2nd booking for not hearing a whistle.. quite a fair level of refeering huh...

Again, look at the first leg. I could go on about that, and about last year's semi's vs. Inter, but what's the point? Football ain't fair. Sometimes the calls go for you, sometimes against. At the end of the day the superior team one, and I will stand by the fact that the refereeing was evenly poor favoring each side in each leg. Given that fact, the better should have won. I wish you best of luck in the EPL and the FA Cup.

better team. Barca can barely make payroll and is subsidized by the Spanish government, what a joke. They represent everything that is wrong in football, teams running huge deficits for short term gains only to be bailed out by more debt. They took out a lone this summer to make fucking payroll what a joke. Makes sense for club from a country with 20% unemployment. Barca represent everything that is wrong with football and it makes me sick.