Villarreal have slammed the standard of refereeing in their Champions League games this season - and insist Konrad Plautz's display at Highbury on Wednesday night was more of the same.
The Spanish side went down 1-0 to Arsenal in their semi-final first leg and feel their small-club status once again worked against them when it came to key decisions. One such moment came when Gilberto Silva appeared to foul Jose Mari in the area and Plautz waved away furious claims for a penalty.
"It looks as though it was all put in place for this to happen, as from the very start we saw what this referee was like," said club director Jose Manuel Llaneza, who insisted the final straw was when the Austrian official awarded Villarreal a stoppage-time free-kick only to blow the final whistle before it could be taken.
"He was clearly prejudiced towards us and he took the biscuit with the last action," Llaneza added.
"Seconds before he said to Rodolfo Arruabarrena that he would add more time but in the end he took this away from us."
Llaneza believes such officiating continues a trend in Villarreal's European games this season, and pointed to a number of decisions that went Internazionale's way in the previous round.
"In the games against Inter we had clear penalties but we were not given them and it is something we deal with all the time."
But Llaneza has faith his side can overturn their first-leg deficit at El Madrigal on Tuesday.
"Although 1-0 is not a comfortable result, it is not so bad that we cannot still go through," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by president Fernando Roig, who said: "The referee gave us a lot of cards and the tackle on Jose Mari was a foul whether it was inside or outside the area. We are still alive though and the match will be decided at El Madrigal."
