Madrid does not plan to enter the rag nor will it respond to the accusations that have come from Barcelona in recent weeks, which have worsened as a result of yesterday's match in San Mamés. Within the white club it has logically surprised that the president of Barça himself, Josep María Bartomeu, has been the one to put on the scarf of the complaint on behalf of the institution: “The VAR is not giving the height that we have. It is not equitable from COVID and it is having an impact on the results and it seems that it always favors the same team ”. Than Pique, in his usual line of controversial strategy when referring to Madrid, and Setien Critical slide towards arbitration is considered part of the landscape, but it has been striking that Bartomeu gets on that wave, since when he maintains institutional meals with Madrid before the Classics he is always moderate, conciliatory and avoids more victimisms typical of the time of Josep Lluís Núñez and Joan Gaspart.
But in Madrid they will not enter the rag and they will not make any official statement in reply. Something like “they bark, then we ride.” Of course, on the noble floor of the white club they remember that Barça was very quiet with the VAR with what happened especially in the first round of the competition. “They have forgotten the penalty they gave Vinicius in the Villarreal field and the VAR did not call. Or that of Brahim in Mallorca who almost had his shirt removed when he was going to finish a corner. Or Feddal's clear hand at the Bernabéu that would have given us the victory against Betis. That cost us five or six points and in Barcelona they called us whiners for complaining. Curious…”.
Definitely, what has collided the most in the Madrid family is that Barça can complain about what happened in the December League Classic, which was played near the Christmas break after being postponed due to the incidents that occurred in Catalonia weeks ago. In that game Hernández Hernández (referee who has embittered the Madrid fans in more than one Clásico) whistled and in the VAR was De Burgos Bengoetxea, the referee who expelled Cristiano three summers ago in a Super Cup Classic at Camp Nou. Varane received two very clear penalties. One of Lenglet, who nailed the studs in his quadriceps, and another of Rakitic, who grabbed him insistently so that he could not finish. In addition, in the second half they annulled a goal for Bale for an alleged offside of Mendy that could not be seen in any of the shots that the television production put: “That day Madrid had to add two more points and Barça one less. In other words, arbitration errors prevented us from now taking seven points from Barça instead of four. Let them cover a little bit ”, they finish off on the Madrid sidewalk, tired of how, as Zidane said in Bilbao,“ it means that Madrid wins by the referees and the tremendous effort of this team is not appreciated. I'm tired of this issue, you have to respect Madrid ”.
Madrid also does not understand that the VAR did not intervene in Messi's stomp on Yeray and Messi's pool with Leganés. There the VAR did not enter and Madrid believe that for things like that Barça have no right to complain.