Ronaldo: They dont want us to win Cristiano Ronaldo was unrestrained in his criticism of referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco after Real Madrids 4-3 defeat to Barcelona in the clasico. The Portugal winger scored Reals third goal from a penalty he won after being brought down by Dani Alves, despite the defender committing the foul outside the penalty area. Regardless of that contentious decision, Real and Ronaldo were angered by two subsequent Barcelona penalties, the first of which saw Sergio Ramos sent off before both were converted by hat-trick hero Lionel Messi. Ronaldo told the clubs official website: We are sad because we knew we deserved more, but the fight goes on. It is difficult because a lot of people did not want us to win and Barcelona would have been out of it. Maybe they dont want Real Madrid to win this Liga. Ive been here for five years, so I know how a lot of things are and I hope to win it regardless of this. Its a feeling of sadness after being 3-2 up and controlling the game. The referee made some unbelievable decisions, but you have to carry on. On Monday, the leagues referee association said it would study Ronaldos comments during its regular Wednesday meeting to determine whether to consider sanctions. Undiano Mallenco refereed at the 2010 World Cup, has extensive Champions League experience and was named Spains top referee in 2005 and 2007 -- but Ronaldo accused him of being too nervous to take control of Sundays big game. There were a lot of errors in one match, he said. In a Real Madrid-Barcelona [match] you have to have a referee who is up to the game. I dont want to look for excuses but if you look at the 90 minutes the referee made a lot of mistakes. Really bad. In my opinion he was not up to a match of this stature. I looked at him and he was pale, thats because he was so nervous and he was unable to make the right decisions. Real Madrid is the biggest club and that creates a lot of envy around it. You can say that the treatment is the same, but its not. Barca coach Gerardo Martino declared La Ligas title race back on after his teams thrilling win. The Catalan side took a fourth-minute lead through Andres Iniesta but then twice trailed as Karim Benzema struck a first-half brace and -- after Messi levelled -- Ronaldos penalty restored Madrids lead early in the second half. But everything changed when Ramos was adjudged to have felled Neymar in the area, and Messi took centre stage. La Liga is not over, Martino said. We were given up for dead but with this result we are right back in it. This was our last chance. We did not want to be left out. Barca stay third with the win, but are now only one point from the summit with Atletico Madrid topping Real on head-to-head record. Messis hat trick took him to 236 goals in the league, overtaking Hugo Sanchez for second in La Liga history. Its difficult to talk about him, Martino said. You run out of things to say. He is still breaking records. He plays so many great games, especially when it counts. Neymars performance brought some criticism, but Martino defended the expensive Brazilian. He did not have the best game, but the turning point -- the red card of Ramos -- comes from him, he said. At that moment he was on a phenomenal run. Hes only 21 but he can handle the big games. If they could have hung on to either of the leads they held, Madrid would be seven points clear of Barca, but coach Carlo Ancelotti downplayed the damage done to his sides ambitions. It does not matter so much because we are still in contention for the title, he said. We played well. We did not deserve to lose.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:58:39 +0000