Bias or not?
Shameful
The first leg last week at The Bernabeu was a shameful affair with both sides taking a pretty equal share of the blame. Real Madrid put in some questionnable challenges and played an incredibly negative game whilst Barcelona indulged in some disgusting and almost laughable play acting and also surrounded the referee demanding action every time a Real Madrid player made a challenge.
It was not pretty and reserve keeper Pinto was dismissed at half time for a fracas in the player’s tunnel.
The second half saw Real Madrid’s Pepe sent off for a challenge that was hardly worthy of a yellow card and saw almost the entire Barcelona side hassle the referee demanding a red card whilst Danni Alves writhed around in agony on the ground before making a remarkable recovery.
Boss
Madrid boss Jose Mourinho was then also sent off after he was seen to say ‘well done’ and clap the fourth official.
Barcelona went on to win the game 2-0 and Mourinho made some pretty strong and surprising allegations after the game.
“It’s clear that against Barcelona you have no chance. I don’t know if it’s the publicity of Unicef, I don’t know if it’s because they are very nice, but they’ve got this power. I don’t know if it’s the friendship of Spanish football federation president Angel Maria Villar at Uefa, where he is vice-president.”
Comments
Those comments together with the behaviour of both clubs led to Uefa bringing charges against them both. Their disciplinary panel will hear the case on 6th May.
The second leg on Tuesday at the Camp Nou saw a 1-1 draw but despite Jose Mourinho not being at the ground, the game, although considerably less embarrassing than the first leg, still didn’t pass without controversy.
In a game in which the first goal was always going to be crucial Real Madrid thought they had taken the lead when Higuain found the net, but the referee had given a highly dubious foul by Cristiano Ronaldo on Mascherano.
Absent
With Mourinho absent Cristiano Ronaldo led the Redal Madrid players in backing up their manager’s previous comments about UEFA bias towards Barcelona. Talking on the Real Madrid website Ronaldo said,
“Next year they might as well give the cup directly to Barcelona. The team is sad, but we knew it was an uphill battle. The name of the match is Mission Impossible IV. Once again it was the referee that didn’t allow us to dictate the outcome. We knew we could beat Barca, but the referee didn’t let us. Higuain’s goal was good. Pique pushed me and I landed on Mascherano. He didn’t used to fall to the ground in England, but he’s picked up the bad habit of doing it here like everyone else.”
Goalkeeper Iker Casillas joined in with the comments.
“It has happened again, just like it always does. We feel tricked by the officials.”
Opinion
Xabi Alonso added his opinion to the debate.
“Many bad decisions were made against us and we are not happy about that. We think we did a good job but we feel decisions really went against us.”
Whilst many people may feel that Mourinho and his players have a point, not everyone connected to Real Madrid feels the same. Former club president Ramon Calderon has spoken out about their reaction. Speaking to the BBC he said,
Harmful
“To talk like that has been harmful for us. Big clubs should not blame the referee for their mistakes or their defeats. We invested £400 million in the last two years to be a very important and strong team so if you lose you cannot blame injuries, bad luck, referees or nothing. If you lose you have to congratulate the rival and that is all. What Mourinho did in terms of talking about Uefa and referees is not acceptable at all.”
So who is right? Is there a bias towards Barcelona and are Real Madrid right to feel cheated, or is this just a case of sour grapes?
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