I will say this before I get into the scandal of what happened today, that the performance was an improvement on the 2-0 defeat to Villarreal before christmas. In fact it was an encouraging one and the best since Eusebio Sacristán took over from David Moyes. Géronimo Rulli was fantastic in goal with some vital stops. Unfortunately Imanol Agirretxe was forced off injured in a collision with Keylor Navas and hopefully he won't be out for too long. However I do fear that Sergio Canales might have done something serious today. It appeared he did his knee and for those that don't know, Canales has had rotten luck with knee injuries in the past five years with cruciate injuries to both knees.
I was pleased to see Jonathas play well, his best of the best season to be honest. He hasn't had much game time with Agirretxe in fine form but he played well today and probably should've scored in the first half with a header. Bruma took his goal exceptionally and but for an awful touch could've put us 2-1 ahead in the 2nd half. This defeat leaves La Real
Scandal:
So to the scandal. Real Madrid were pretty much handed the points today from referee José González-González. A cross from Gareth Bale was headed clear by Aritz Elustondo but Karim Benzema decided to take a dive and conned González-González into giving a penalty. Cristiano Ronaldo failed to convert the penalty by hitting it over the bar so justice was done on that one.
Couple of minutes before half-time Gareth Bale tries to send in another cross that hit Yuri Berchiche's knee and bounces up onto the his hand and out for a corner. Referee somehow thinks it's a deliberate handball and gives the decision. Now this one is NOT a deliberate handball, it quiet clearly hit Berchiche's knee and bounces off his hand, he can't control the direction of the ball hitting his knee so its not deliberate. It's not a penalty if it's deliberate handball. Ronaldo steps up and converts this one to put Madrid 1-0 up just before the break.
Into the second half and Yuri Berchiche hits the byline to cross into the box. Just after he crosses he is taken out by Pepe. Pepe does not win the ball and Madrid end up clearing anyway. That Pepe "challenge" was a penalty decision if the referee sees it.
Onto Barcelona now, they were also the benefactors of a truly astonishing penalty call tonight. Sergio Busquets' sent a high ball into the Betis box looking for Messi to latch onto but Betis keeper Antonio Adán gets to the ball first and punches clear. In anyone's book it is positive goalkeeping from Adán. However after he punches clear he accidentally clashed with Messi and both players go down with knocks. Referee Bikandi-Garrido obviously didn't like seeing Messi on the ground and decided to give Barcelona the penalty. Neymar took the penalty, hit the bar and Heiko Westermann under pressure hit the ball into his own net.
Both Real Madrid and Barcelona get preferential treatment in La Liga. Not only do they milk the league out of half the TV rights money but they get the refereeing decisions a lot more often than not. You would think with the millions upon millions more they have to spend on players that they wouldn't need the help of referees but welcome to La Liga.
Real Madrid just before christmas benefited from a phantom penalty in their 10-2 win over Rayo Vallecano. A coming together in the box, happens on every set-piece in every game in every league. Rayo go down to nine men, penalty is converted and the slaughter begins.
So Madrid and Barca march on with a little help from the referees and yet somehow Diego Simeone and his Atlético side are just about in the mix.
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