Real Madrid are enraged with comments from senior officials at Barcelona which claimed that they have benefitted from VAR decisions.
According to the front page of Tuesday’s edition of Marca, Madrid believe that the Catalan club’s comments are driven by ‘rage and envy’ at their successes on the pitch in La Liga.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu told Movistar this weekend, as cited by Marca, that “many teams have been disadvantaged” by the use of VAR, with the Blaugrana’s spokesperson Josep Vives going even further on Monday.
“There has been no fairness in the application of the criteria. Some teams have been harmed and one team has benefited,” Vives said, via Marca. “The president gave an opinion and verified some facts. It seems that, at times, there is no equanimity.”
Madrid lead Barcelona by four points at the summit of La Liga with just four rounds of action remaining and are on course to land only their second league title since 2012.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have won all six matches since La Liga resumed last month – while Barcelona have been held to three draws – but their triumphs have not been without controversy.
Their wins over Valencia and Real Sociedad were both heavily influenced by several controversial decisions which were awarded via VAR, before further contentious decisions in this weekend’s win at Athletic Club Bilbao.
Los Blancos captain Sergio Ramos – who had moments earlier given Madrid the lead from the penalty spot – stepped on the ankle of Athletic forward Raul Garcia in the penalty area, but VAR did not intervene to award a penalty to the hosts.
