Raphinha believes that bad refereeing decisions across their Champions League quarter-final tie with Atletico Madrid robbed his team of a spot in the final four. 

Barcelona were eliminated from the competition despite winning Tuesday's second leg 2-1 at the Metropolitano, with Ademola Lookman's 31st-minute strike proving decisive. 

Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres had wiped out Atletico's advantage from the first leg after just 24 minutes, only for Lookman to help seal a 3-2 victory on aggregate soon after. 

And Barcelona's task was made even more difficult in the second half when Eric Garcia was sent off for a last-man foul on Alexander Sorloth, with the Spaniard initially given a yellow card before VAR intervened and upgraded it. 

It followed a similar situation from the first leg that saw Pau Cubarsi dismissed after he clipped Giuliano Simeone from behind at the end of the first half, with Atletico going on to win 2-0 at Camp Nou. 

Barcelona saw a player sent off in both legs of a Champions League knockout tie for the first time ever, though Raphinha felt other decisions went against his team throughout the tie, most notably when Marc Pubill avoided being sent off for a bizarre handball incident in the first leg. 

Raphinha missed each game through injury but told reporters after the second leg: "For me, this match was a robbery. Not just this match but the other ones as well.

"The refereeing was really bad, the decisions [Turpin] makes are unbelievable. I don't know how many fouls Atletico made, but the referee didn't give them a single yellow card.

"I really want to understand why they're so afraid that Barcelona will come and win."

Atletico committed 15 fouls in the second leg but did not receive any cautions, while Barcelona had Gavi's yellow and Garcia's red card to show for seven fewer fouls. 

Pubill was one of three Atletico players booked in the first leg, when he stopped the ball with his hand after goalkeeper Juan Musso had appeared to restart play with a goal-kick.

Barcelona complained to UEFA over a grave lack of VAR intervention, but European football's governing body said on Tuesday that the club's protest was "inadmissible".

"It was tough, especially when you realise you have to work three times as hard to win the match," added Raphinha. 

"I think this tie was quite misleading, in my view. I think everyone can make mistakes; everyone is human.

"But when the mistakes keep repeating themselves in exactly the same way, I think that's something we need to pay attention to."

Barcelona have now been eliminated from the Champions League in seven of their last 10 quarter-final appearances in the competition.