Ilkay Gundogan raised many eyebrows in his postgame interview after Barcelona‘s elimination from the UEFA Champions League against PSG, with the German midfielder calling out Ronald Araujo for leaving the Cules down to 10 men in the second leg.
“If he fouled him, I guess it’s a red card. I haven’t seen the replay. It’s difficult to say, in these crucial moments, you need to be sure to get the ball. If you don’t get it, and I don’t know if he did, you have to stay away. I prefer to concede a goal there or to leave the striker one on one, even though he played the ball quite far ahead, so I don’t know if he would reach the ball,” Gundogan told CBS. “But let the goalkeeper have a chance to save us or even concede a goal. To get a red card, to go a player down so early, it just kills the game.”
Araujo was sent off after 29′ for taking down Bradley Barcola on a potential one-on-one situation. Barcelona were leading 1-0 at home (4-2 on aggregate), but the red card proved costly, with Paris Saint-Germain eventually turning things around.
Speaking at a charity event in Barcelona on Thursday, the Uruguayan defender reacted to his teammate’s public criticism. While Araujo didn’t call out Gundogan, he did take a subtle shot at the German for not keeping things private: “I prefer to keep to myself what I think about Gündogan’s comments. I have certain values and they have to be respected.”
Barça atmosphere not great after Gundogan’s public criticism of Araujo
Gundogan’s comments created quite a situation in the Barcelona dressing room, with the likes of Sergi Roberto and Jules Kounde showing support for Araujo after the Champions League elimination.
“Now more united than ever, here we win and lose together!”, the Spanish full-back wrote in an Instagram post, while the Frenchman said: “By the way, we win as a team and we also lose as a team.”
On top of that, Gundogan’s wife also had something to say about this. In an Instagram story she later deleted, Sara Arfaoui defended her husband posting a picture of him lifting the Champions League trophy with Manchester City.
In that same post, she wrote: “This man is a working hard man and his football opinions is about improving and he is giving everything to this team. His mentality is a treble mentality.”
Gundogan already called out Barça teammates before
Gundogan had already made headlines for throwing his teammates under the bus in October 2023. Following Barcelona’s 1-2 loss to Real Madrid in El Clasico last year, the German midfielder said:
“I don’t want to say something wrong, to be honest, but I was now in the dressing room, and of course people are disappointed, but especially after such a big game and such a result, I wish (for) more frustration, more anger and more disappointment. This is a little bit the problem. I don’t know, there has to be more emotion, especially when you lose and you know you can perform better in certain situations, and you just don’t react and it transfers to the pitch.”
Barcelona’s next game after the Champions League exit will be against Real Madrid on Sunday, so it will be interesting to see how Gundogan, Araujo and company respond.
Xavi Hernandez’s men are still alive in the title race, but since they trail leaders Madrid by eight points, Sunday’s Clasico is a must-win for the Cules if they want to challenge for the trophy until the end.
