Soccer

Arsene Wenger fumes at the referee after Arsenal’s 10 goal rout

Arsenal manager saw his side crash out at the last 16 stage for the seventh year in a row

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was unhappy with the referee after their elimination from the Champions League. Photo: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Tue Mar 7 2017 - 22:33

Arsene Wenger declared himself "revolted" by referee Tasos Sidiropoulos' performance in his side's 5-1 Champions League loss at home to Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.

Arsenal crashed out at the last-16 stage 10-2 on aggregate, but afterwards Wenger pointed the finger of blame squarely at the Greek official.

The hosts were 1-0 in front when he waved away a penalty claim from Theo Walcott, but gave one at the other end for a Laurent Koscielny foul on Robert Lewandowski.

Koscielny was sent off for the foul, having initially been shown a yellow card, and Lewandowski netted the spot-kick to end Arsenal’s hopes.

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A fuming Wenger said on BT Sport: “I feel we produced the game we wanted and we are very unlucky tonight with some decisions which were very difficult to understand.

“We are 1-0 up, it’s a 100 per cent penalty on Walcott, Lewandowski’s offside, there’s no penalty on top of that, you get the red card, of course that killed us.

“Overall it’s difficult to understand what’s happened. I still must say my team has produced a huge effort tonight and played very well.

“He is offside, Lewandowski, there is no penalty, on top of that he gives a yellow card, on top of that he gives after a red card.

“It’s just not serious. When you see the importance of the games and you see an attitude like that I am absolutely revolted and sorry for people who come and pay a lot of money to watch this kind of game.”

Wenger, whose side have now lost at this stage of the Champions League for seven seasons in a row, added: “I felt we were in it.

“You never know how Bayern would have reacted had we scored a second goal and at the end it finishes like that, it’s difficult to take. And of course it looks very bad and doesn’t reflect the quality of our performance tonight.

“I think once it was 2-1 down it was very difficult. You have no chance to qualify any more. That’s not the part of the game I would like to keep in my mind, because I think the second part of the game has been spoilt by the referee.”

Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerin said the players were “really hurt” by the defeat.

“It hurt to see them (the fans) leave so early,” he said on BT Sport. “We just need to try and make them happy with the rest of our season.”

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