Sevilla coach erupts: The referees don't want Real Madrid to go nine points clear before the Clasico

Fierce criticism from Luis Garcia of the refereeing after the Guler incident

Sevilla coach Luis Garcia launched a broadside at the officiating following the 4-1 defeat to Real Madrid on Sunday evening at the Santiago Bernabeu, in the ninth round of La Liga, objecting to the failure to send off Real's Arda Guler after he caught Sevilla's Peque Fernandez with his elbow, and arguing that the decision denied Sevilla the chance to play the match with a numerical advantage.

Catalan newspaper "Sport" carried Garcia's comments, and the anger at VAR's failure to intervene was plain. Asked about the headline on Sevilla's official website, "An elbow and that's the end of it", he replied: "I hope you all use that same headline, not just the Sevilla website. As for the officiating, we should have had a match, eleven against eleven, in which the opponent deserved to win, but we were denied the chance to play a different match."

He added: "In La Liga, sometimes you play with a numerical advantage or a man down, and today we should have been playing with a numerical advantage, eleven against ten, from the twenty-fifth minute. They even took my voice away from me! We were denied the chance to play eleven against ten."

"Other than that, I don't want to say anything else about the match. It's unbelievable," he continued. "At half-time, Peque told us he had been struck. I have watched the incident. It's a red card, quite simply. And on the second goal, there was a foul on Rubi, maybe not worthy of a red card, but a foul without doubt."

Garcia stopped short of claiming his side would have won had Real Madrid played with ten men, but he stressed that his team never got to compete in different circumstances, saying: "Maybe we wouldn't have won anyway, but today we should have been playing eleven against ten from the twenty-fifth minute onwards. That's the summary of the match. In conditions of equal play, eleven against eleven, there's no room for argument, Real Madrid deserved the win, but there was another version of this match that we were never allowed to play."

Television coverage of the controversial incidents drew his fire too, with the challenge on Rubi barely shown. "I was told that the incident involving Rubi wasn't shown on the television screens, but it's completely clear," he said. "Maybe they could have beaten us even with ten men, they have beaten us before while playing a man down, simply because they're an excellent team, but we were denied that scenario."

He went on: "It's another match that should have taken a different course, but we didn't get that opportunity. This was another case in which we should have had the numerical advantage, but it didn't happen."

Why did VAR not review the Guler incident? Garcia had a theory. "That incident would have given us control instead of remaining under pressure. I don't know why VAR didn't intervene, perhaps because they didn't want the gap to reach nine points before the Clasico, in case we managed to win."

Real Madrid sit third in La Liga on 21 points, a single point behind second-placed Atletico Madrid. Barcelona lead with a perfect record of 27 points. That only sharpens the Clasico: Real need to cut the gap and keep the pressure on, while Barca want to stretch it to nine points and pull clear early.

Garcia also described the mood inside the dressing room, where his players were furious after watching the incident back. He accepted, too, that his team had been required to perform better in certain areas.

"When the two teams have an equal number of players, there are things we should have carried out better," he continued. "We performed well in the second half, but the team's cohesion collapsed after that incident. The players were extremely angry, and after they saw the incident clearly, their frustration grew. It's a case that demands clear, unambiguous intervention from the video assistant referee."

For all his objections to the officiating, Garcia refused to play down Real Madrid's strength, and he turned to next week's Clasico. "They made a mistake, that's all there is to it. I don't think Real Madrid are playing badly, and neither are Atletico, even though the other team, Barcelona, have taken a perfect haul of points, which is truly remarkable. I think both teams are in good shape, and it's expected to be an entertaining match, and Real Madrid certainly have a chance of getting a positive result."

Responsibility, he argued, does not lie with the on-field referee alone in such cases. The video technology has the tools to spot the fine details. Asked about his conversation with the referee after the elbowing incident, he said: "There's no point talking to the referee, you're supposed to talk to the person in the VAR room. With this technology in place, especially in matches involving Real Madrid or Barcelona, there are far more cameras available, so they should have seen that incident."

He added: "This is a situation that concerns the video technology, not just the referee on the pitch. It's a completely clear incident, it's considered a hostile act."

Asked how the incident shaped the game, Garcia said: "After that incident, there isn't much for me to say. They have a very strong attacking line. We could have scored more, and so could they, and the match could have ended with a much bigger margin, but the match could have taken a different course, which we weren't allowed. I'm not saying we would definitely have won if they had played with ten men, but we simply weren't given the chance to play that kind of match."

His criticism then widened to La Liga's refereeing row as a whole, with some clubs complaining more loudly than others. "It's not really my business to comment on this, as I also have my flaws and I make plenty of mistakes, but I have a firm impression that those who complain most are in fact the ones with the least right to complain."

He added: "Take Levante or our team as an example. Today we were discussing a specific incident, and only yesterday Manuel Pellegrini (the Real Betis coach) was talking normally about another incident. I really do believe that those who complain more than anyone else, and I mean those three clubs here, are the ones who should complain least."

"That's how things go. I've been in this game a long time, and it's always the same story repeating itself," he continued. "I don't know if there are differences between them, but as for the rest of us... good grief!"

There was praise for his players' spirit after the break, and for substitutions that got the team moving and creating chances. "We showed a fighting spirit, we pushed forward, and we created good scoring chances," he said. "We wanted to inject fresh blood into the team, and the three substitutions were very successful. Ejuke came on between the halves, and the other players who came on performed very well too."