Lautaro Martinez bought the first-half penalty which Polish referee Szymon Marciniak initially waved away, according to Fifa chief Arsene Wenger
“I am highly against these kind of penalties and I am highly against using the slow motion,” Wenger told beInSports.
“At normal pace this is a great tackle, he’s first on the ball. Why does [Cubarsi] touch him? Look what Lautaro is doing. He leans into him, he looks for the penalty, he knows he cannot score because he feels the defender there.
“The referee, in this situation, has not made the right decision. He [Cubarsi] is first to the ball and that’s what counts for me. The rest is done by Lautaro. It doesn’t matter if there’s contact, it’s who plays the ball and who wins the ball first.”
Barcelona manager Hansi Flick also criticised referee Marciniak who had a busy night, later reversing a decision he had signalled as a spot kick for Barcelona, with VAR saying Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s foul on Lamine Yamal was just outside the box.
Barca’s players and bench also complained about what they thought was handball inside the box by Inter defender Francesco Acerbi and a foul by full-back Denzel Dumfries on Gerard Martin in the build-up to the equaliser which took the game to extra time.
“I don’t want to talk too much about the referee, but every decision that was 50-50 went (Inter’s) way,” Flick told a press conference. “I am disappointed, but not with my team. They tried everything. It’s the way it is. We are out, but next year we will try again to make the fans happy.
“It makes me sad … My team did an excellent job. I don’t like talking about the referee … I’ve told him what I think, but I’m not going to say it here what I’ve said…”
