Filipe Luis slams Torres red card

Atletico Madrid defender Filipe Luis was left angry with Fernando Torres’ red card in their 2-1 Champions League defeat to Barcelona.

Torres opened the scoring at Camp Nou with a clinical finish but collected two yellow cards in the space of six minutes in the first half for fouls on Neymar and Sergio Busquets.

Luis Suarez scored twice to secure a first-leg advantage for the European champions and, though he believes they are “still alive” in the quarter-final, Filipe Luis felt that referee Felix Brych’s eagerness to reach for his pocket cost his side.

“It could be a lot worse but a lot better as well,” he told BT Sport when asked for his view of the result. “The red card was totally unfair, it was his second foul and his second card. But it’s not easy to play against Barca in the Champions League.

“We had to do an epic game. We have the second game so we have to be alive to that. We’re still alive.

“They scored twice, they won the game, they did what they wanted. We tried to defend but we know it’s really difficult, usually they’ll have a chance and they had a lot of chances. Fortunately they only scored two.”

The former Chelsea defender is confident Atletico have the strength in depth to replace Torres in the second leg at the Vicente Calderon but accepts they face a tough task to reach the last four.

“Torres is a brilliant guy, he scored a lot of goals against Barca, they’re his favourite team, we’ll miss him but we have other players who can play there,” he added.

“It’s possible, but it’s really difficult.”

Club captain Gabi felt Atleti were the dominant side during the match until the dismissal of Torres.

“The sending-off was very harsh,” he told Atresmedia. “Until then, we dominated the game.

“The first half was ours. The second was theirs, with the extra man.”