Barcelona’s official complaint to UEFA regarding the refereeing in last week’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat at home to Atletico Madrid has been ruled ‘inadmissible’.

Barca lost the game 2-0 with the match changing on the sending-off of Pau Cubarsi on the stroke of half-time with Julian Alvarez curling in the subsequent free-kick and Alexander Sorloth netting a second with 20 minutes to go.

The basis of Barca’s post-match anger was not Cubarsi’s dismissal but an incident that occurred in the 54th-minute.

Atletico goalkeeper Juan Musso appeared to restart the game with a short goal-kick to Marc Pubill only for the defender to stop the ball with his hand and re-set. Pubill was already on a booking and Barca felt he should have been handed a second yellow card and a penalty awarded.

Referee Istvan Kovacs and VAR Christian Dingert opted not to intervene, leaving Barcelona furious.

They made their case to UEFA but saw it dismissed with a statement from European football’s governing body stating: “Following the Champions League quarter-final, first leg played on Wednesday, 8 April 2026 between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, Barcelona filed a protest relating to a referee decision — on 13 April 2026,  the UEFA Control Ethics and Disciplinary Body declared the protest to be inadmissible.”

Barcelona reassured that grass will be cut

There was one small win for Barca boss Hansi Flick, though, ahead of tonight’s second leg.

The German claimed the grass at the Metropolitano was too long, an opinion formed during training at the venue last night.

And during this morning’s standard meeting between the two clubs and the UEFA delegate Christian Kofoed, Atleti assured all parties that the grass would be cut to 26millimetres, four millimetres under the maximum 30 allowed.

The grass will also be watered before the game and at half-time.

Flick is eager for the surface to be as slick as possible with his team looking to stage a comeback and secure a place in the semi-finals.