Zidane contradicts himself in post-match comments regarding referee decisions | OneFootball

Icon: Barca Universal

Barca Universal

·11 May 2021

Zidane contradicts himself in post-match comments regarding referee decisions

Article image:Zidane contradicts himself in post-match comments regarding referee decisions

To say the least, La Liga has its share of controversial refereeing decisions. Real Madrid seems to find themselves in a fair amount of them, some in their favour, and more recently, some not.

Los Blancos’ manager, Zinedine Zidane, found himself contradicting his own views recently after a controversial penalty call against Sevilla, that ended in a 2-2 draw owing to a 95th-minute equaliser from Eden Hazard that saw Real Madrid fail to climb to the top of the table.


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The teams were level at 1-1 when Sevilla were charged with a foul on Karim Benzema by referee Juan Martinez Munuera, only for the decision to be ruled irrelevant after an earlier handball by Éder Militão was spotted, awarding a penalty to Sevilla, converted by Ivan Rakitić to give his side the lead.

Commenting on the decision, Zidane stated: “I’m angry. You’ll have to explain the handball rules to me. I spoke to the referee, asking for an explanation. He said it was a handball, but the other one was not. If there’s a handball inside the box, you give it both ways.

“I wasn’t convinced by what the referee said. We can talk now but it won’t be cleared up, that’s what annoys me. Today, I saw a handball from Sevilla and another from Real Madrid and he only gave one.”

The draw saw Atlético Madrid retain their top spot in La Liga, blowing the title race wide open for anyone’s taking. Understandably, the Frenchman chalked it up to a controversial penalty call for which he was not the beneficiary. The same outrage was not extended to a penalty appeal with Eibar towards the end of last year.

Eibar was denied what looked like a clear handball after it struck the arm of captain Sergio Ramos. The referee chose not to review the incident on the pitchside monitor (the reason for which is still not known).

To this, Zidane candidly commented: “If the referee does not whistle for a pen, it’s not a pen.”The Frenchman was furious when handball rules were ambiguously applied against Real Madrid but was in favour of the autonomy of the referee when it suited Los Blancos. It does appear to be a case of hypocrisy, but it nonetheless emphasises the importance of VAR rules being made clearer.

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