Refs treating Madrid and Barça differently
Real Madrid take back the lead

Real Madrid was able able to pull out a come from behind 3-2 win over a sixth-place Villarreal team on Sunday to reassume their two point lead over rivals Barcelona in the La Liga title race, however that was not the big news out of Spain this weekend. After a questionable penalty call that went in Madrid's favor, the big news was a possible referee conspiracy working in Real Madrid's best interest.

Starting with the calls/non-calls, Villarreal's  Bruno was whistled for a handball in the penalty area which Cristiano Ronaldo swiftly converted to tie the match at 2-2. Later Alvaro Morata put Los Blancos ahead and secured their three points with a goal in the 83rd minute. However after the match the referees were spotted leaving the stadium with Real Madrid bags in hand. There is still no word on what was in the bags, although many are saying that whatever was in them swayed the refs onto the Real Madrid side of the fence.

Later on, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was fined by the Spanish Referee's Committee for a critical tweet he sent out with even the Madrid media questioning the officiating. 

Being a gentleman, Villarreal manager Fran Escribá refused to gang up on the refs, saying that the officiating was not noticeably different.

More importantly though, it gives Zinedine Zidane's men their two point lead back with a game less played than the rest of the competition. Tomorrow they can extend their lead to five points potentially with a win over 13th-place club Las Palmas.

When they visit Tenerife they will see old friend Jesé Rodriguez, whom they recently sold to Paris Saint-Germain last summer. Jesé was hailed as the next Ronaldo as he rose through Real Madrid's ranks, but could never gain a foothold with the first team. He recently said that had he never gotten injured, he would have been a regular starter with Madrid. This year at PSG he definitely had a shot to be that undoubted starter, but infamously flamed out so bad that he was loaned out to his boyhood club.

Jesé will most surely be on a mission Wednesday night, and it is doubtful Zidane will trot out his preferred lineup so Jesé may be able to shine against his old club.

The drama never stops in Spain, there is plenty on the pitch, but this week the real drama was found of it. 

Photo: Flickr

Blog: 

Add comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.