‘It’s very unfair to focus on a single incident‘ — Michel downplays refereeing debate following Girona’s win over Barcelona | OneFootball

FC Barcelona endured another difficult night as they visited Montilivi for their last league game against Girona, and ended up losing the game 2-1. With this loss, the Blaugranes have lost their top position in La Liga to Real Madrid.

However, last night’s game was filled with refereeing controversies, and the second goal scored by Girona raised particular concern among the Catalans as there was a clear foul on Jules Kounde during the buildup.

Hansi Flick also raised this issue in his post-match presser, but on the other hand, Michel downplayed this incident as he himself spoke to the press after the game. As Mundo Deportivo has reported, the Spanish coach believed it was unfair to focus on that specific incident after the performance his team had put in:

“It’s a rebound; I think Claudio goes for the ball. Claudio doesn’t go in with his studs—he goes with the inside of his foot to try to contest it. If a foul is given, that’s fine, but it’s also fine that VAR didn’t intervene. It’s very unfair to focus on a single incident, given the game we played.”

The Girona coach was also very happy with his team’s performance against this Barcelona team:

“The victory was very much needed because there’s a group of ten teams fighting to avoid the bottom, and beating Barça is very difficult—they win 90% of their matches. We played a great game; I really enjoyed it against a rival like the one we faced.”

The Girona coach went on to highlight the collective effort of his players, underlining the physical demands they imposed on Barcelona:

“If you look at the data, Barça ran a lot. We made them run backwards, and they suffered more than expected. It’s a 10 out of 10 for the players—the credit isn’t mine because they’re the ones who dared to do everything I asked of them.”

Michel also singled out Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia for special praise:

“Joan García was Barça’s best player, and we showed tremendous personality.”

He also addressed the late sending off of Joel Roca, explaining that the referee informed him that an additional minute was added due to the dismissal:

“Joel wanted to stop the game and made that decision in the moment. I don’t think there was any bad faith at any point; I think it was an isolated solution.”

In closing, Michel placed the match among the standout performances of his tenure at the club:

It is natural for Michel to focus more on the positive performance of his team and to highlight the controversy of the match. Meanwhile, Barcelona will also have to get over this defeat, and get back to winning ways as soon as possible.