Nacho suspension: Barca dressing room, half angry, half resigned
Barça have no doubts about this: the only thing they can do is focus on what is in their hands and that involves improving the team's play, recovering injured players, maintaining their competitive level and continuing to win games. They should not worry too much about what is happening externally because there is little they can do about it. That is the prevailing position in the heart of the Blaugrana dressing room, which, despite this, does not hide its anger at the latest helping hand received by Real Madrid. The reaction after learning of the one-match suspension reduction for Nacho, who will be able to play in the Clásico at Montjuïc, ranged from anger to resignation.
"It's the same as always," say the team, a statement based on the double standard measures that referees are using with Barça and Real Madrid. In fact, the partial amnesty for the Madrid centre-back did not even come as a surprise to the coaching staff led by Xavi Hernandez, who already had to suffer the shambles that involved punishing Lewandowski with three matches last season for, after being sent off with a double yellow card, touching his nose as he left the pitch. On that occasion, they understand, Gil Manzano laid the first stone and sporting justice finished the job. Barça went all the way to CAS, but there was no way to reduce the ridiculous punishment.
Quite the opposite of what happened with Nacho. In its ruling, the Appeals Court states that "some of the points alleged (...) justify the moderation of the sanction (...) based on criteria of reasonableness and the necessary weighing up of the circumstances". However, the "criteria of reasonableness and the necessary weighing of the circumstances" of the innocuous gesture of the Polish striker after seeing the red card were not taken into account.
The dressing room already had their eyebrows raised because of the refereeing they had received this season and they remembered that the double standards were already on display with the goal disallowed by Soto Grado that Joao Félix scored in Granada, which would have given the victory to Barça and which was allowed for Joselu against Getafe. The same referee sent off Raphinha and Xavi in the 0-0 draw in the Blaugrana's league opener at Getafe, where the referee also avoided whistling for a clear penalty on Araujo.
At Barça they feel very hurt by what is happening on the pitch, but also by the way the actions of both teams are being judged in the offices. They understand that they are alone and that the only thing that is in their hands is to transform the indignation into motivation to fight for a La Liga title that is going to be hard to win, but that, if they achieve it, it would have "a lot of merit".
