Real Madrid’s players are ‘in shock’ over referee decision against Valencia

The Real Madrid players were still licking their wounds in training on Sunday after the controversial draw against Valencia, their second in the last three LaLiga games.

Bellingham’s goal was declared invalid by Gil Manzano, who had whistled, “incomprehensibly” for the club, when the ball was already in the air on the way to goal. “A state of shock”, is the phrase which club sources are using to define the mood inside the dressing room on the morning after the night before.

First of all, the club’s loudspeaker, Real Madrid Televisión, took the tanks onto the streets to talk about what happened. “A laughing stock, an embarrassment, a robbery, unusual and unprecedented” were some of the adjectives used to describe Gil Manzano’s performance in the last seconds of the match in Valencia.

Secondly, from the upper echelons of the club, the fear exists that, due to the poor refereeing suffered in recent matches, that there is an attempt to “put Barça back in the fight for the title” as well as the concern that the statements of Laporta and Xavi, alluding to the fact that LaLiga is being tampered with, have had an effect.

Finally, AS understands there is a feeling of total “helplessness” in the dressing room in the face of refereeing that is being seen as inconsistent, hence the “state of shock”. “If it had happened the other way around,” they reason from inside the dressing room, “the team would have had to be rescued and escorted to the airport”.

The players understand that their treatment has been twofold: on one hand, Gil Manzano took away two points, but also banned Bellingham for the next two matches, against Celta and Osasuna, in a key stretch of the season. The Englishman was sent off with a straight red card and Madrid are already processing the appeal.

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Real Madrid’s dressing room think that this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back after several inconsistent refereeing performances in recent matches. It all started against Atlético Madrid, when Sánchez Martínez failed to point out three penalties for Ancelotti’s side (one from Saúl on Lucas Vázquez and two - one from Savic and another from Llorente - on Bellingham). As well as this, VAR referee Prieto Iglesias did not tell the on-field referee to go to the monitor any of the three instances.

Then, against Rayo, Carvajal was sent off and a penalty was awarded for a handball by Camavinga. The following day, Barcelona defender Koundé, in a very similar play, was overlooked with the game at 0-0. Against Sevilla, although they won, Joselu’s goal was disallowed for a very debatable foul by Nacho on En Nesyri. And now, finally, the Mestalla scandal... Real Madrid’s players are trying to get rid of the feeling of anger in order to go up against RB Leipzig next week (Wednesday March 6 with kick off at 3:00 p.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. PT.) in the second leg of the Champions League.