Arsenal to suffer referee ‘bias’ in Madrid after ‘disgraceful’ Aston Villa decision
Aston Villa referee José María Sánchez Martínez has been slammed for his decision with the home side chasing a goal against PSG.
Despite coming from behind on the night, Unai Emery’s side were unable to advance to the semi-final of the Champions League, with the two-goal deficit from the first-leg proving too much to overcome and the addition of just three minutes stoppage time has been blasted.
Before the 30th minute mark, Villa found themselves with an even bigger mountain to climb, after strikes from Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes put the visitors ahead.
However, the hosts battled back into the tie thanks to Youri Tielemans, Ezri Konsa and John McGinn, but when the board went up showing how much added time was to come at the end of the match it wasn’t what was expected.
After the full-time whistle, talkSPORT pundit Jason Cundy, slammed Martínez by saying that he should have awarded more added time due to the amount of goals and substitutions, with Jamie O’Hara adding that the decision was “disgraceful” before suggesting Arsenal will suffer the opposite against Real Madrid.
Jamie O’Hara says one minute added time was ‘disgraceful’ in Villa vs PSG
Speaking live on talkSPORT on Wednesday (16 April), Cundy discussed the decision by saying: “It was only a minute, one minute, three goals. Yeah, you know the minimum is 30 seconds of goal. So you’ve got it, you’ve got to add another minute on top there. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It’s great. In Europe, they do not monitor the game the same way as we do in the Premier League. That you know, with the amount of subs, the goals that were scored in there, I would have thought a minimum of five.”
O’Hara then added: “I mean, three minutes is disgraceful. We you actually think about it should have been a minimum of five to seven. I think the referees are a bit biased [against] English sides. If Real Madrid are two-nil up in the 90th minute [against Arsenal], I guarantee you will see seven minutes.”
Mikel Arteta’s side take a 3-0 lead to the Santiago Bernabeu after a Declan Rice-inspired victory at the Emirates, with Carlo Ancelotti’s reigning champions forced to chase the tie as Emery’s did at Villa Park.
A memorable performance from Villa in the Champions League
Football Insider Verdict
Despite their journey in the Champions League coming to an end, the Villa supporters will look back at their campaign with pride.
If it wasn’t for a slow start in the opening half an hour, Emery‘s men could have easily progressed in the tie, and that is something that they can learn from moving forward.
Villa came so close to completing an unthinkable comeback that not many would have believed possible when the final whistle went at the Parc des Princes, but will feel hard done by with the referees decision to add just three minutes on.
| Villa stats | PSG stats |
| Possession – 34% | Possession – 74% |
| Total shots – 17 | Total shots – 14 |
| On target – 9 | On target – 7 |
| Off target – 6 | Off target – 4 |
There were five goals and six substitutions which according to the official guidelines should equate to one minute per goal and 30 seconds for each substitution.
This means Villa would have been expecting a minimum of seven minutes added on after the one minute in first-half stoppage time, and with the incident involving McGinn and Marquinhos some would have argued they deserved more than that.
If Arsenal come undone at the death thanks to an extended amount of stoppage time then the response fro Arteta and company is sure to be explosive.