Furious Robin van Persie slammed the referee over his astonishing red card after Arsenal were sent crashing out of the Champions League by Barcelona.
With the score level at 1-1 the Holland striker was shown a harsh second yellow card by Massimo Busacca for firing an effort at goal after having been given offside.
Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona went on to win the clash 3-1 to seal a 4-3 aggregate victory after Xavi and Lionel Messi added to the Argentine’s first-half opener.
A fuming Van Persie labelled the Swiss official’s decision as a “total joke”. He said: “I think (the red card) had a big influence. I think it’s a total joke – how can I hear this whistle with 95,000 people jumping up (and shouting)?”
The gap between Busacca’s whistle and Van Persie’s shot was only a second and the forward told Sky Sports: “That makes it even worse. I cannot understand that view from the ref.
“If there were four, five, six seconds in between, you can make a check (for offside). One second, it’s a joke.
“I tried to explain there were 95,000 people jumping up, how can I hear the whistle? He’s been bad all evening, whistling against us. I don’t know why he’s here tonight.
“We feel betrayed a bit, when it was 1-1 it was all to play for and in my opinion this referee killed the game.”
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, whose side had drawn level early in the second half thanks to a Sergio Busquets own-goal, was also raging over the decision at the final whistle.
He said: “With the people shouting, if he takes his chance I see no reason to give a second yellow card. To do that, (the referee) must absolutely have never played football.
“I told him what I think about his decision face to face and there is not a lot more to say.”