Tomás Roncero can take no more and erupts: Negreira at his purest
A strong performance by the match referee
Real Madrid lost to Atletico Madrid in the derby of the capital (2-1) at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium, dealing Jose Mourinho's side a fresh blow in the title race, leaving them six points behind leaders Barcelona.
Real Madrid barely threatened Jan Oblak's goal all evening. Atletico, meanwhile, pounced on a Dean Huijsen error. The defender saw red after a penalty went Giuliano's way, and Grimaldo stepped up to convert it and hand the hosts the lead.
From the bench, Mourinho rolled the dice in search of a way back, but his changes fell flat. Then Jonathan David doubled the lead for Atletico, finishing off a superb pass from Giuliano to all but settle the derby in Diego Simeone's favour.
Refereeing controversy stoked wide interest in the contest. Tomas Roncero, the journalist close to Real Madrid who works with the newspaper "AS" and the programme "El Chiringuito", led the charge against Ortiz Arias's decisions on his personal account on the "X" platform.
Roncero got his criticisms in early, pointing to a challenge that went unpunished by a yellow card. He wrote: "Pena was let off a yellow card within just a quarter of an hour. Everything is fine, Jose Luis."
He didn't stop there. One by one, he flagged what he saw as a string of refereeing errors: a challenge by Kang-in Lee, a foul by Cuti Romero on Jude Bellingham, plus two more incidents involving Baena.
Roncero said: "And Kang-in was forgiven. In addition to Cuti Romero with Jude. And the two yellow cards that were forgiven for Baena. The scandalous work of Garcia Ortiz. Atletico should have gone to the break with 8 players."
The tone sharpened still further. He went as far as branding Ortiz Arias's performance "Negreira in its purest form", a scathing verdict on how the referee managed the match.
Back on the Cuti Romero incident, Roncero argued the Atletico defender should have walked. He wrote via the "X" platform: "The scandalous red card that was overlooked for Cuti Romero. A disgraceful refereeing manipulation."
Rounding off his comments, Roncero called the derby "purely sarcastic", stressing that his remarks were aimed not at Real Madrid's display but at what he saw as clear refereeing controversy.
