The Manchester City captain felt his side lost control of the tie when the referee failed to award a spot-kick after Edin Dzeko was brought down by Gerard Pique inside the box. Vincent Kompany was unhappy with the match officials after his side were beaten 2-1 (4-1 on aggregate) by Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Dzeko appeared to be fouled in the area by Pique in the second half with the score at 1-0 and Kompany – who netted to make the score 1-1 before Dani Alves’ late winner – claimed afterwards that the referee’s failure to award a penalty ended all hope of a comeback.
Manchester City are 15/8 with Paddy Power to win the Premier League”For me, it was a clear penalty,” he told Sky Sports afterwards. “He was in a position to shoot and was caught.
“It took the chance away. We can discuss about stuff like this but you never know if things like this would have been enough to qualify.
“A few times, we could have scored and that would have obviously changed the game. Going down to 10 men again after it was a clear penalty, I think, isn’t easy conditions to play against a strong team.”
City headed into the Camp Nou clash facing a mammoth task, with Barca having scored two away goals in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium, but Kompany felt he and his team-mates more than matched the Catalan giants over 180 minutes.
“Over the course of the two games, when there were 11 players on the pitch, there wasn’t much between the teams,” he added. “Obviously [Lionel] Messi is an incredible player and anything can happen when he’s on the ball but it could have been different.
