Barça left fuming in loss

BARCELONA INCREDULOUS AFTER NO-CALL OF A PENALTY

Barcelona's frustration reached a boiling point in the latter stages of their 2-1 loss to Real Madrid. With the minutes ticking down, the emotions of the Catalonian visitors could not be kept in check and it resulted in a flurry of cards being shown by referee Pérez Lasa.

It began in the 90th minute with Dani Alves' crunching tackle of Cristiano Ronaldo which earned the Brazilian defender a yellow card. That started a chain of events that really left Barcelona howling. Madrid's resulting free kick was stopped by Victor Valdés who started the Barcelona counterattack.

Eventually Adriano had possession and went down in the Madrid penalty area. Barcelona claimed it was a foul on Sergio Ramos and that a penalty should have been awarded. Lasa disagreed and furthermore, of all people, he booked Andres Iniesta for dissent.

Moments later the final whistle blew and that is when Valdés really lost control as he went after Lasa and was promptly given a second yellow for his protestations. This all continued after the match including Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta who stated that a penalty should have been called and that, "the images are very clear".

What is certain is that the debate will rage on for days, if not weeks, over whether a penalty should have been called or not. As for now Barcelona, will have to regroup and figure out how to regain their winning form.

Source: http://www.marca.com