Sergi Roberto reportedly 'cried in the dressing room' after he was substituted during Barcelona's crushing 3-0 defeat against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, according to
.
The Spanish midfielder, who started the game at right-wing-back, suffered a torrid time in the Group E encounter - consistently getting beat by the left-side of Bayern's attack, particularly by former Manchester City man Leroy Sane and 20-year-old sensation Alphonso Davies.
Spectators at the Camp Nou quickly grew tired of Roberto's underwhelming performance and began to jeer their own player up until, and including, when he was substituted off in the 59th minute.
Roberto's fellow Spaniard Gerard Pique was quick to jump to his defence, revealing that he was "hurt" to hear the jeers directed at his compatriot and insisting that the 29-year-old midfielder was playing in a usual position to the one his usually operates in.
https://twitter.com/ESPNFC/status/1437888209057423361
"It hurts me a lot personally because I know this person, he’s a spectacular human being and he loves this club more than anybody," Pique told
Movistar.
"I’d like to remind people also that he’s not a full-back… he’s a central player, a midfielder. He’s made a sacrifice to play this position and he’s done it phenomenally many times.
"It hurts a lot but the people are free to voice their opinions but if you ask me personally, it hurts a lot."
It was evidently a disappointing night for the Catalan giants, who failed to record a shot on target for the first time in a Champions League game since at least 2003/2004 and have now lost three straight home games in Europe for the first time in their history.
Despite suffering defeat in their first group match, the only positive to come from the night is that the other two teams in the group - Benfica and Dynamo Kiev - played out a 0-0 draw and therefore only recorded one point respectively.
