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Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman fiercely criticized the referee and video assistant after his team was beaten 3-1 at home by Real Madrid in Saturday’s ‘Clásico’ in La Liga.
Sergio Ramos was sanctioned with a penalty midway through the second half after a VAR review on the field when Barça defender Clement Lenglet pulled his shirt.
The Madrid captain scored from the penalty spot to restore his team’s lead before Luka Modric added the third, inflicting a second straight league defeat on the Catalans after last week’s 1-0 defeat at Getafe.
“I don’t understand VAR, I think it’s only used to make decisions against Barça,” Koeman said.
“There are always shirt jerks like this in the area and I think Ramos fouls Lenglet first. There is a shirt jerk, but not enough to make him fall behind as he did … For me it is not a penalty . “
Barça had two rejected penalty appeals in the match, when Lionel Messi fell on a tackle from Raphael Varane in the first half and when the ball bounced off Varane’s arm in the second. None of the incidents were reviewed by the referee on the court monitor.
“We have had five games and (VAR) has only been used to go against Barça. It has never gone the way we wanted,” Koeman added.
“The decision had a great influence on the final result, because we played well until the penalty. We played well, we created chances and it’s difficult to understand how we lost, we didn’t deserve to lose like we did.”
However, Ramos had no doubt that the right decision had been made.
“I think it was a very clear penalty, he pulled my shirt when I was jumping for the ball and it is as clear as daylight. It is unfair to criticize a referee for such a clear decision,” he said.
“We knew how to put aside the criticism. We had to be united after a terrible week for us, there was no time for us to get angry,” added Ramos.
“In general we played very well, we showed a lot of commitment today and we showed that criticism does not hurt us and that we will always continue forward. This victory will do a lot for our mental strength.”
Ramos, the player with the longest time at Madrid who played 45th in the Clásico, is well used to his team’s losing streak of results, which has become disproportionate.
“I have spent 16 years here and a crisis can start after two bad games. In the course of a season you always go through bad spells and hopefully this only lasts a week,” he said.
“Negative energy spreads through the locker room after losses like the ones we had, but it’s up to the more experienced players to get rid of it. This team has won so much but we want to keep winning and we’re going to do well.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane went out of his way to explain how his team could play so well against Barça so soon after their haggard performance against Cádiz and Shakhtar.
“Sometimes there is no explanation, but we concentrate on what we did today and we want to continue playing like this,” he said.
“I don’t know if the criticism was fair or unfair, all I can say is that I am proud of my players. We have beaten a team that always causes you problems. We should enjoy this after all that has been said about it. . ”
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