{"id":569091,"date":"2026-05-06T10:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569091\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:49:17","slug":"spanish-media-fume-hes-mad-and-dangerous-as-they-play-blame-game-after-arsenal-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569091\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish media fume ‘he’s mad and dangerous’ as they play blame game after Arsenal loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal will contest this season’s Champions League final after a historic victory against Atletico Madrid at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night\"Referee<\/p>\n

Arsenal’s journey to the Champions League final was riddled with officiating controversies(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

Arsenal have reached their second-ever Champions League<\/a> final after they defeated Atletico Madrid 2-1 over two legs. But refereeing decisions have somewhat stolen the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta’s<\/a> side were held to a 1-1 draw when they visited Madrid last week for the first leg but that clash was not without VAR drama<\/a>. The first half of the second leg was a cagey one, with a place in the final up for grabs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in the 44th minute, Bukayo Saka reacted quickest<\/a> after Leandro Trossard’s shot was parried out by Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak, and broke the deadlock. Early in the second half, Antoine Griezmann controlled a rebound in the box and appeared to be caught by Riccardo Calafiori<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans may have feared the worst but VAR did not award a spot-kick, citing a foul by Atletico’s Marc Pubill on Gabriel moments before Calafiori’s infringement. The Spanish press has lamented this decision as Arsenal held on to win 1-0<\/a> and seal their spot in Budapest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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AS<\/p>\n

Calafiori’s lunge on Griezmann in the second half would have likely resulted in an Atletico penalty were it not for what was given as a foul by Pubill in the build-up. Referee Daniel Siebert has taken the brunt of the flak for the call, with outlet AS<\/a> taking particular umbrage.<\/p>\n

\"Marc<\/p>\n

Pubill was called for a foul on Gabriel(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

“For the Rojiblancos, tonight will be remembered above all by one name. His name was Daniel Siebert,” read a report. “[It was] a clear, blatant, undeniable stamp on the foot with which Calafiori brought down the Frenchman.<\/p>\n

“But the referee had previously whistled for a foul by Pubill on Gabriel, which, by the way, wasn’t a foul. They had both jumped at the same time and the VAR room didn’t even take him to the monitor.<\/p>\n

“The tool was supposed to be there to avoid errors like this. The kind that always drowns Atletico’s hopes in the Champions League. His whistle was heard afterwards. Siebert, alongside [referees Mark] Clattenburg and [Szymon] Marciniak: these guys are truly mad, bad, and dangerous.”<\/p>\n

Mundo Deportivo<\/p>\n

This incident was further lambasted by Mundo Deportivo<\/a>. The outlet wrote: “After a shot by Pubill, the referee disallowed Calafiori’s clear foul on Griezmann.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Siebert has come under fire(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

“The replays clearly show that Pubill did not commit the foul, so a penalty should have been awarded. However, the VAR officials opted not to overturn Siebert’s initial decision.<\/p>\n

“In the first half, Calafiori had already committed a clear penalty against Giuliano [Simeone] in the 41st minute. A push that sent him sprawling inside the area. However, that play was ruled offside. An offside that, surprisingly, wasn’t reviewed by VAR.”<\/p>\n

Sport<\/p>\n

Another platform, Sport<\/a>, also expressed some discontent over the officiating, writing: “Football owes no one anything. It just settles scores. It’s the debt collector.<\/p>\n

\"Riccardo<\/p>\n

One outlet also recalled a first-half decision(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

“There are no Champions League titles left for Atletico. The memory only serves to torture them for what could have been. They exposed the inconsistency of referee Daniel Siebert. A referee known for his quick decisions.<\/p>\n

“He failed to call a clear penalty for a foul by Calafiori on Griezmann after an alleged foul on Gabriel. The VAR official was Bastian Dankert, the German referee who witnessed Julian Alvarez’s double touch [penalty miss that saw Atletico knocked out of last year’s Champions League by Real Madrid].”<\/p>\n

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package<\/p>\n

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.<\/p>\n

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal will contest this season’s Champions League final after a historic victory against Atletico Madrid at the Emirates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[168010,4202,171858,64034,218,322,2119,44424,101,397,56,54,55,50535],"class_list":["post-569091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-atletico","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-champions-league-final","tag-diego-simeone","tag-football","tag-gabriel-magalhaes","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-riccardo-calafiori","tag-sports","tag-uefa-champions-league","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-var"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}