Diego Simeone bemoans that Real Madrid always benefit from controversial decisions

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has claimed rivals Real Madrid consistently benefit from controversial refereeing decisions.

Simeone’s Atletico managed a credible 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday evening, though Los Rojiblancos felt aggrieved that they had to compete for much of the second half with ten men.

Angel Correa was sent off for elbowing Antonio Rudiger in the midriff in an off-ball incident. Jose Gimenez gave Atletico a shock lead soon afterwards before young striker Alvaro Rodriguez rescued a point for Real late on.

Speaking to DAZN post-match, Simeone was furious with the decision to hand Correa a red card and insisted Real are given preferential treatment by match officials.

“A contact is not a blow. Football is a physical game. If I’m not mistaken, Rudiger measures 1.94m and if it was apparently such a brutal blow, it would have left him sitting down, but he immediately gets up,” Simeone said.

“It may be a yellow [card] but taking a player out for that, there would be no players left on the field.

“It’s the same story. It is normal, and it has become normal [refereeing favouring Madrid] and that’s not right and it would be nice if we could all compete in the same way.”

Referring to an incident involving Real’s Dani Ceballos in a previous loss, Simeone added: “In the Copa del Rey, they could have sent off Dani Ceballos for a foul that was a red. Today, Angel’s foul they saw it that way. You have all seen it, there are things that are very clear.

“[VAR] can go either way, sometimes in your favour, sometimes against you. However, every time we come here [to the Bernabeu], it goes against us.”