Barcelona, Atletico differ in opinion over Torres red card

FC Barcelona coach Luis Enrique and his Atletico Madrid counterpart Diego Simeone disagreed over the key moment in the first leg Champions League quarter-final which the former won 2-1.

Atletico were leading 1-0 in the Camp Nou Stadium here on Tuesday through a Fernando Torres goal before two poor challenges from the striker saw him sent off 10 minutes before the break, reports Xinhua news agency.

The second half saw a revitalised Barcelona lay siege to the Atletico goal and two goals from striker Luis Suarez, who himself was lucky to stay on the pitch after an off-the-ball kick at defender Juanfran.

The two strikes turned the game around to give the defending champions a narrow lead for next week's return leg.

"I saw the sending off, just as all of the fans did. Both of the yellow cards were clear. It could be that they were naive but we saw them," said Luis Enrique on Tuesday.

"Everyone is going to have their opinion of what happened depending on which side they support, but that isn't going to change what the referee saw," he said, admitting that the sending off changed the game.

"We were able to move the ball with pace and the second half worked out perfectly."

Atletico coach Diego Simeone had a different view of things.

"I am not annoyed with Torres," he replied after the match when asked if he was angry with the striker or the referee.

"The referees are there to decide. Trying to think over what I saw over the game and the referee. It seems that in Europe we are starting to annoy someone," commented Simeone, who considers that the return leg will be "very attractive."