Zlatan Ibrahimovic has accused Chelsea’s players of being “babies” after the Paris Saint-Germain striker was sent off at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
PSG advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals at Chelsea’s expense despite Ibrahimovic being shown a straight red card after 31 minutes, dismissed for a challenge on Oscar which looked more clumsy than malicious as he attempted to pull out of the 50-50 tackle.
The Dutch referee, Bjorn Kuipers, was quick to make his decision, although he was surrounded by nine Chelsea players as he pulled the card out of his top pocket. Ibrahimovic said: “I don’t know if I have to get angry or start to laugh. For me when I saw the red card I was like ‘the guy doesn’t know what he’s doing’.
“That is not the worst. The worst is when I got the red card all the Chelsea players come around. It felt like I had a lot of babies around me.”
The Sweden striker also suggested Oscar feigned injury. “I pulled out [of the tackle], because I saw him come in the tackle,” Ibrahimovic said. “I don’t know if he was acting afterwards. Doesn’t matter. We won the game, we went through and let’s see what happens.”
The 33-year-old lauded the performance of his team-mates, who defied the numerical disadvantage to twice come from behind and progress on away goals courtesy of a 2-2 draw - 3-3 on aggregate.
“It was an amazing performance because we were playing with one less [player],” he added. “They played with big hearts. It’s not easy to play with 10 guys, especially against a team like Chelsea. We showed quality and big heart.”
PSG will not be able to overturn Ibrahimovic’s red card despite José Mourinho calling on the European governing body to cancel the dismissal.
Uefasaid referees’ decisions were viewed as final unless ithere was a case of mistake identity. “Decisions taken by the referee on the field of play are final and may not be reviewed by the Uefa disciplinary bodies,” the European governing body said.
