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Cape Town - Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres said on Tuesday he was wrongly dismissed in last week's Champions League quarter final first leg with Barcelona.
The striker is suspended from Wednesday's second leg for getting sent off in the 35th minute at the Nou Camp for a double booking, shortly after giving Atletico the lead.
Barcelona took advantage of having an extra man, Luis Suarez's second-half double setting up a 2-1 win which Atletico must overturn without Torres at the Vicente Calderon.
"I'm convinced that the second yellow card was not a card, I felt a mix of impotence and frustration," Torres told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Tuesday, describing his foul on Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets.
"When I see it again I see a slip-up. It's not a kick nor a late tackle. The only argument is that it was an action that could have been avoided. My ambition to make it 2-0 ended up harming the team," he added.
"I'm certain that with 11 players we would have won. The following days after the game were difficult. It took two days to get over what happened. The moments after the sending off were the worst of my career. I just wanted to be alone."
Torres has two months left on his loan contract with Atletico, his boyhood club which he played for between 2001 and 2007 until moving to Liverpool. He later played for Chelsea and AC Milan before returning to Atletico on loan from Milan in January 2015.
Although he did not give details on where his immediate future lay, the 32-year-old said he wanted to emulate former Deportivo La Coruna veteran Juan Carlos Valeron and AS Roma captain Francesco Totti by extending his stay with Atletico.
"I would love to be the Valeron or Totti of Atleti, but today more than ever is not the time to talk about that," he added.
