Following Barcelona’s 4-3 triumph in last night’s El Clásico, Cristiano Ronaldo hinted that unnamed influencers wanted Real Madrid to lose.
“Real Madrid is the greatest club and there is a lot of envy around it,” Ronaldo said.
“It’s tough because a lot of people did not want us to win and Barcelona to be out of the title race. They probably do not want Real to win this league. It makes me think that you don’t only win matches on the pitch but also with a little bit of help from outside.”
The 29-year-old did not elaborate as to who outside the game was at the root of the systematic bias towards rivals Barcelona. He did, however, hit out at the performance of referee Undiano Mallenco.
“The referee made some incredible decisions but we have to carry on,” said the Portuguese international. “In a Real Madrid-Barcelona game you have to have a referee who is up to the task. I don’t want to use the referee as an excuse but if you analyze the 90 minutes there were a lot of mistakes.”
Mallenco made questionable decisions on both sides of the ball, namely awarding Madrid with a 55th minute penalty when replays showed Dani Alves’ foul on Ronaldo was outside the box, handing Barcelona the same gift ten minutes later when Neymar tumbled hard on Sergio Ramos’ minimal contact (for which the Madrid defender was sent off), and giving the Blaugrana an 83rd minute penalty when Andres Iniesta went down easy after wedging himself between Xabi Alonso and Daniel Carvajal.
While the location of Alves’ foul on Ronaldo was relatively clear cut, the other three decisions remain debatable. What isn’t at issue is the CV of Mallenco, who has refereed at the 2010 World Cup, has vast Champions League and El Clásico experience, and was awarded Spain’s top referee in 2005 and 2007.
“In my opinion he was not up to a match of this stature,” Ronaldo stated. “I looked at him and he was pale, that’s because he was so nervous and he was unable to make the right decisions.”
With the latest installment of El Clásico in the books along and Atletico Madrid’s 2-0 win over Real Betis, the La Liga table has Atletico in 1st place on 70 points, Madrid 2nd with 70 points and Barcelona 3rd on 69 points with nine matches left to play.
