Vincent Kompany Slams Referee Following Second Defeat to Barcelona

The Citizens tried hard to overturn a two goal deficit which they had conceded in the home leg but were found short as Barcelona booked their seat in the quarterfinals. An inspired performance from Lionel Messi saw them win the leg 2-1 and finish the tie at 4-1.

City were hard done in the last leg when they had Martin Demichellis sent off for a challenge on Messi. The Citizens played the game with 10 men but in spite of their intent were scuppered by the numerical advantage and the quality of attack that the Catalans possess.

In this tie, the English side were down again to 10 men after Pablo Zabaleta was sent off with a second yellow for arguing with the referee.

The match official, Stéphane Lannoy, had a poor game throughout and failed to spot a similar offence on Messi in the first half when Joleon Lescott escaped unscathed after a challenge in the box

"Going for a second time down to 10 men after it was a clear penalty I think...it is not easy conditions to come and play against a strong team. For me it was a clear penalty, he was in a position to shoot and I think Edin's triggering foot is getting caught and it takes the chance away," Kompany said.

"We can discuss stuff like that and ultimately you never know if it would have been enough to qualify, but we gave everything we had.

"I think I can speak for the team, we've got nothing left in the tank, we gave everything. A few times we could have scored and obviously it would have changed the game.

"Obviously Lionel Messi is an incredible player and whenever he has the ball danger can happen, but outside of that we had a few chances where if we scored we are looking at a completely different game," he added.