Ronald Koeman, Barcelona coach, did not hide his anger at the end of the match with the defeat for his team against Real Madrid, and despite acknowledging the mistakes of his team “in the first half”, all and stressing that they faced a “very defensive” rival, he complained very bitterly about the refereeing, especially the, in his opinion, “very clear penalty to Braithwaite who did not whistle.”
The Barça coach began, in front of the Movistar Plus cameras showing an undisguised displeasure with an undisguised complaint. “If you’re from Barça you have to be hot and unhappy with two decisions from the referee. I’m just asking a referee to make the right decisions. The penalty is very clear. We have to shut up and that’s it,” said Koeman. without forgetting the time that the referee added to the 90 minutes: “the extra time of four minutes, when the referee was two minutes by subject of his shoulder … I do not know the reason”.
Minutes later, in the press room, the Dutch coach’s speech was equally outraged. “The penalty is very clear, everyone has seen it and I don’t understand that a lineman who is ten meters away can’t see it. Maybe the referee couldn’t see it, but there is a VAR for situations like this, to help the referees because the referee can’t see everything “he stressed, without wanting to go further but without stopping to do so.
“I’m not the only one who is like that. The players are sad about this decision by the referee. There are players who have been at Barça for many years and I don’t know how they should feel again,” he said, noting that “I I have also been a Barça player “and preferring to close the issue from there. “Better not talk anymore. We lost the game, we tried until the last moment, with the crossbar of Ilaix … But it was criminal. I don’t want to think about this issue anymore. I’ve already said what I have to say. say, I defend my team, my club, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. “
On Barça’s game and game, Koeman explained that he faced a rival “with many behind … It’s easier to defend with many behind than to take risks like us, but it’s true that in the first half we weren’t good, we didn’t defend well, we left spaces that we didn’t find in attack and we didn’t hit the last pass. We arrived well but we didn’t create danger “.
“They defended well with so many players and came out well on the counterattack, which we didn’t know how to defend well in the first half. When we play against a team that defends so far back and we lack depth, without spaces … Dembélé had a pair of
occasions that were not right and we have to improve in the last pass “acknowledged the azulgrana technician, who for nothing wants to give the League by lost.
“There is a lot left. We have fought and lost against a rival who is also fighting for the League but there are nine days left; each game for all three will be difficult and we will fight in all the missing matches,” he said, warning that from now on important is “to think we can win a title next week and we need to focus on that.”