{"id":21077,"date":"2024-01-22T00:11:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T21:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/21077\/real-madrid-downplay-almeria-talk\/"},"modified":"2024-01-22T00:11:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T21:11:05","slug":"real-madrid-downplay-almeria-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=21077","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid downplay Almeria talk of VAR &#8216;robbery&#8217; in loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid downplay Almeria talk of VAR &#8216;robbery&#8217; in loss\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent<span class=\"timestamp \">January 21, 2024, 7:40 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti dismissed Almer\u00eda&#39;s anger as the bottom La Liga club complained they were robbed in the hosts&#39; 3-2 win at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Almeria, who are winless in the league this season, took a surprise 2-0 halftime lead against Madrid.  However, Ancelotti&#39;s side responded with three second-half goals, including a 99th-minute winner to return to the top of the table.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The match shifted at three key moments after the break, with referee Francisco Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Maeso awarding Madrid a penalty, ruling out an Almer\u00eda strike and allowing Vinicius Junior to score with his upper arm.<\/p>\n<p>All three decisions were made after Hern\u00e1ndez Maeso reviewed the incidents on the pitchside monitor, with Ancelotti lending his support to each of the calls.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I understand Almer\u00eda&#39;s anger at these decisions, but I think they were all correct,&#8221; Ancelotti said in his post-match press conference.  &#8220;I saw them again. I think the referee agreed with them. It&#39;s not the VAR who makes the decisions. The VAR advises and the referee decides. I think he was right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Almer\u00eda got off to a good <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/start\/\"   title=\"start\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">start<\/a>, with Largie Ramazani opening the scoring in the first minute and Edgar Gonz\u00e1lez doubling the lead in the 43rd minute before the drama began after the break.<\/p>\n<p>First, the referee awarded a penalty for a Kaiky Fernandes handball when Almer\u00eda claimed the Brazilian had been fouled by Joselu.  Jude Bellingham converted from the spot.<\/p>\n<p>Almer\u00eda then had a goal from Sergio Arribas disallowed due to a foul on Bellingham by Dion Lopy in the build-up, paving the way for Vin\u00edcius to equalize with his upper arm.  Dani Carvajal then scored the winner in stoppage time, sneaking in at the far post to score from a tight angle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a competition that should be fair for everyone, and that\u2019s sometimes hard to see,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez told reporters.  &#8220;THE [Madrid penalty] It&#39;s an obvious foul and I think the second one is a handball foul.  All the decisions were in their favor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Almeria coach Gaizka Garitano argues with the referee during his team&#39;s La Liga defeat to Real Madrid. <cite>Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Defender Marc Pubill added that &#8220;someone decided we couldn&#39;t <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> and that&#39;s what happened.<\/p>\n<p>Midfielder Gonzalo Melero was equally upset, telling reporters: &#8220;We feel like we were robbed today, that&#39;s clear. They couldn&#39;t have done more to [Madrid] to get back into the match.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And this has already happened to us several times this season. If you don&#39;t complain, they don&#39;t help you, that&#39;s how it is. We never said anything, but today we exceeded all limits . It was incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ancelotti blamed Madrid&#39;s lackluster first half on fatigue after a tough run of games that ended with them being eliminated from the Copa del Rey by Atl\u00e9tico Madrid in extra time on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>This came after a 4-1 victory over Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final and a 5-3 win over Atl\u00e9tico after extra time in the same competition, with both matches played in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first half was really bad,\u201d Ancelotti said.  &#8220;We lacked energy. The team was tired. The second half was a different story and we had the support of the stadium to push us, which is important.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I made a mistake with the team by selecting tired players. In the 30th minute I was already thinking about changes to have more energy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All I could do to change the dynamic was cool my legs at half-time. Some players paid the price in extra time against Atl\u00e9tico on Thursday. The second half was best.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am more [angry] with myself than anything else.  Everyone wants to play, but I have to assess who is ready, who needs rest, etc., and I was wrong today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The victory takes Real Madrid to 51 points from 20 matches ahead of Saturday&#39;s trip to Las Palmas.  Almer\u00eda remains in last position with only six points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid downplay Almeria talk of VAR &#8216;robbery&#8217; in loss\u060c Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondentJanuary 21, 2024, 7:40 p.m. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti dismissed Almer\u00eda&#39;s anger as the bottom La Liga club complained they were robbed in the hosts&#39; 3-2 win at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u on Sunday. Almeria, who are winless in the league this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9541,9549,343,2184,2183,4352,253,2552],"class_list":["post-21077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-almeria","tag-downplay","tag-loss","tag-madrid","tag-real","tag-robbery","tag-talk","tag-var"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21079,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21077\/revisions\/21079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}