Philippe Montanier admitted that Real Sociedad were helped by Real Zaragoza’s red card, but denied that it was part of a wider conspiracy.
The Basque Country outfit ran out 2-1 winners at La Romareda on Sunday thanks to Antoine Griezmann and Imanol Agirretxe’s goals.
Zaragoza were reduced to 10 men early on thanks to Hector’s two yellow cards, which made it the seventh time this season that La Real have seen opponents have a player sent off.
“There’s no explanation. It is a coincidence or maybe it isn’t, but at the beginning of this game we were playing combatively and provoked our rivals’ mistakes,” reflected Montanier post-match.
“They have never been direct reds, always two yellows. I think it is a coincidence. Our goal in the second half of the season has been to win on the road and we did that today.
“We knew what Zaragoza would start well. We suffered from the first minute, but we gradually got into the game and we took the first chance to score.
“That gave the players more confidence and we showed ourselves to be more robust.”
