Barcelona have submitted a strongly-worded complaint to UEFA after Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford and his teammates criticised the refereeing in both legs of their Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid. The Catalan giants endured a 2-0 defeat to their La Liga opponents at the Nou Camp in their first encounter - a match in which Pau Cubarsi was dismissed 44 minutes in.

Rashford, though, objected to Istvan Kovacs refusing his side what looked to be a clear penalty and possible red card against Marc Pubill. The Atletico Madrid defender was already on a yellow when he handled the ball he collected from Juan Musso - thinking it not to be in play. Protests from Barcelona were plentiful, but were eventually dismissed by the official - prompting the La Liga pacesetters to submit a formal objection with UEFA.

That was also rejected by the governing body, who responded in a statement: "Following the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg between Barcelona and Atlético, Barcelona filed a protest relating to a referee decision. The UEFA Control Ethics and Disciplinary Body has declared the protest to be inadmissible."

Speaking with CBS Sports following the match, Rashford vented his frustration over what appeared to be a blatant penalty in his side's favour. Rashford, whose future beyond this season remains uncertain, said: "It's clear to me; It's a penalty. It's happened before and it's always been given.

"I don't understand the decision. People talk about common sense, but common sense itself tells you it's a penalty. Our reaction reflects that, but so does that of their own players. That counts, too. I've been in similar situations in matches where the decision was a penalty. Ultimately, it's hard not to complain when the decision goes against you."

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Having travelled to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano on Tuesday needing to overturn a 2-0 deficit, Barcelona wasted little time in drawing level on aggregate. Lamine Yamal broke the deadlock just four minutes into the contest, before Ferran Torres doubled their tally on the night to make it 2-2 on aggregate with 20 minutes played.

Ademola Lookman shattered the dreams of Barca supporters across the globe a third of the way into the contest, however, restoring Atleti's aggregate lead. Following a scoreless second-half, Eric Garcia received his marching orders with approximately 10 minutes remaining, compounding the visitors' misery.

And following their elimination from the tournament 3-2 on aggregate across the two encounters, Raphinha wasted no time in condemning the match officials over both fixtures. Speaking to TNT Sports Brasil, he said: "For me, we were robbed.

"I don't want to talk about the refereeing, but we played extremely well, they committed I don't know how many fouls, and the referee didn't even pull out a single yellow card against them. The refereeing was very bad in all the decisions he made.

"What I really want to understand is, by what criteria is Barca being refereed? I'd really like to understand the secret behind this fear that haunts these people at the thought of Barca winning. Yes, we're all human and we can make a mistake in a match, that's something I can understand, but for it to happen in two consecutive matches? That's not normal. I think the result of this double confrontation isn't fair."

Meanwhile, Barcelona are preparing to lodge further grievances with UEFA, with club president Joan Laporta also branding particular rulings as "disgraceful" in the immediate aftermath. He told reporters: "We filed a complaint after the first leg and UEFA said it was 'inadmissible.'

"We will ask for further explanations. The club will also make another complaint because what's inadmissible is what happened to us on Tuesday once again."