Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr. said his side had been treated unfairly by the referee in their 2-1 home defeat by Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday, saying Gabriel Jesus’s equaliser should have been ruled out for a foul.
City striker Jesus made slight contact with Real defender Sergio Ramos as he climbed to head home a cross from Kevin de Bruyne and cancel out Isco’s opening goal in the last-16 first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The visitors then earned a penalty when substitute Raheem Sterling was tripped in the area by Dani Carvajal and De Bruyne converted from the spot, while Real’s problems were compounded when captain Ramos was sent off for bringing down Jesus.
“Gabriel Jesus committed a foul in the first goal and everyone knows it. We have the VAR but the referee didn’t want to go and have a look at the play. I could see it from the sidelines and it was clear,” Vinicius told reporters.
“Referees always come here and make decisions against us on purpose, it’s always the same. We are the team that has won the most league titles and most Champions League, it will always be like this.”
Jesus said he had not committed a foul on Ramos. “Football is a contact sport, I didn’t push him, I barely used my hand and didn’t make a big movement, I stayed still, it wasn’t a foul,” he said.
Real coach Zinedine Zidane had no complaints about the foul and said he was more angry with the way his side switched off in the final quarter of an hour.
“The referee told me there was no push and he made his decision. What bothers me is what we did, the errors we made hurt a lot because we didn’t deserve this. You have to stay focused for the whole 90 minutes,” the Frenchman said.
City coach Pep Guardiola said he did not see the foul because he was caught up in the emotion of seeing his side equalise against the run of play.
“We conceded the first goal when we were playing our best football and we scored when they were playing better than us,” said the Catalan, who has won the Champions League twice with Barcelona but failed to get past the quarter-finals with City.
“This is what this competition is like.”
Reuters
