Manuel Pellegrini is likely to face a UEFA ban after he tore into referee Jonas Eriksson and branded the Swede as “not impartial” following Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat to Barcelona.

The City boss suggested in his astonishing post-match attack that the official was trying to atone for an error he made against the Catalan side during a previous Champions League encounter with AC Milan last season.

The Chilean’s ill advised comments centred around Eriksson’s decision to award Barca a penalty and send off Martin Demichelis following a last ditch tackle on Lionel Messi, which was arguably outside the area.

He said: “From the beginning I felt the referee was not impartial to both teams so he decided the game with a foul that he didn’t whistle against and a penalty with Demichelis that was not a penalty, it was outside the box.

“He did not have any control of the game. He was on the side of Barcelona from the beginning until the end. I think it was not a good idea to put a referee from Sweden in charge of such an important match, especially a referee who has made an important mistake against Barcelona in a previous match.”

And Pellegrini did not stop there as he claimed the massive Champions League last-16 match required a far more experienced referee.

“This referee whistled the Barcelona-Milan and he made an important error against Barcelona. Today he rearranged it,” said the City boss.

“I think that the referee decided the game because before the penalty there was a foul on Navas three metres away from him so he could see it without any problem.

“The more important mistake is the foul against Navas and secondly the penalty. Contact was outside the box – that is the foul, you cannot continue the foul. The first foul is outside the box.

“Before the penalty Barcelona did not have chances and we were preparing the way to score. Playing 40 minutes with one player less is very difficult against Barcelona. We played well and tried to draw and in the last minute they scored the second goal.

“[There’s] more important football in Europe than Sweden. A big game with two important teams, that kind of game needs a referee with more experience.”