Athletic Club manager Ernesto Valverde has a major Copa del Rey quarter-final at home to Barcelona to prepare, but was inevitably asked about the refereeing controversy following leaked VAR audios. Los Blancos certainly were aided by VAR in their win over Almeria on Sunday, which inspired Barcelona President Joan Laporta to claim the competition was not equal. Valverde gave them an example to follow.
Valverde noted ahead of the match that he felt Barcelona were playing well, compared to the majority of commentary on them, and said his team would need to be focused on the match in order to get a result.
When the question of the referees was put to Valverde, he pointed out that Girona seemed to be carrying on without applying pressure on referees and it was working out well for them.
“The things with the referees and Barcelona and Real Madrid and so on, it’s as if it’s for consumption between them. If you call something against Madrid, you’re favouring Barcelona, if you call something against Barcelona, you’re favouring Madrid.”
“But the rest… It doesn’t matter much. I look at Girona, and I don’t think it’s affecting them at all. They’re leading the league, and playing cinematic football to boot, and I get the feeling they are not worrying about the referees much, they’re focusing on the game, and they are doing very well. The rest is… noise. We’re going to leave that there, and focus on the game.”
Girona coach Michel Sanchez had said at the weekend he felt that they were competing on a level playing field with everyone, and dismissed conspiracy theories on the matter. Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone was less forgiving of the controversy, but admitted all they could do is carry on playing.
Sly01
488
I Said it already that next Classico is Madrid and Girona . Barca don’t play football again . They only make noise
ariwanze
389
...to all Real Madrid Haters, this part is for you:
ishti
373
Valverde is wrong here. Girona has had their refereeing woes. They have publicly criticised some of the decisions which went against them which they claim was completely wrong. In fact they have gone as far as saying that "we are being punished for challenging the big boys". You can't whitewash those thuggery in favour of real madrid.
SaadAkhtarKhan
43
let's be honest here, refereeing mistakes happen in favour as well as against pretty much all teams in football. Did Barcelona forget about arsenal? Chelsea? when it happens, it happens and it's in the past and nothing can be done to change it, only move forward. Moreover, this has been blown very much our of proportion, out of the 3 decisions only one was arguably wrong which was the one in vinis goal. if the referees wanted Madrid to win why would they disallow Bellinghams goal where I think it was either joselu or brahim who was given outside. Nobody seems to be mentioning that decision, although it went to var too..