Celta Vigo manager unhappy with Barcelona personnel change

Barcelona made it back-to-back victories in La Liga with an impressive 4-2 win over Celta Vigo on Sunday evening, but those in Galicia have not been entirely pleased with the circumstances surrounding their defeat to the reigning champions.

Specifically, Celta head coach Claudio Giraldez (via Diario AS) questioned whether Barcelona should have been allowed to swap Marc Casado with Dani Olmo, with the former having pulled up in the warm-up with an injury.

“At the regulation level, it seems to me that it’s not too good when you go out on the pitch with eleven players, with an idea of eleven players, with a pre-talk of eleven players, with a post-warm-up talk with eleven players and, suddenly, there’s another one that changes you a lot. It is different for Casadó to play than for Olmo to play. I’m not saying that they did it with bad intentions, but I find it strange that it doesn’t count as a substitution and that then, even above, Casadó could play in the second half if they wanted to. It’s a bit weird at the regulatory level.”

Giraldez calls Barcelona penalty decision a “grey situation”

Giraldez also felt that Marcos Alonso was unfortunate to have a penalty awarded against him as part of the incident that led to the opening goal. The former Barcelona defender was adjudged to have handled a Fermin Lopez shot, which allowed Robert Lewandowski to score inside the first 10 minutes.

“It’s a pretty grey situation. It’s very bad luck because it’s a situation that doesn’t involve danger, it’s a shot that the goalkeeper would save or go wide. Marcos has no intention of making himself big, it is a natural reaction, but it is true that this year they are whistled this type of hand. You eat it, they give you the penalty and it’s a goal, but those types of handballs are very grey situations in football.”