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Diego Simeone hits out at La Liga referees for favouring Real Madrid after derby stalemate

Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid
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The Blancos escaped the defeat against their city-rivals with a late equalizer.

Diego Simeone has expressed his frustration over the refereeing decisions during the Madrid derby.

Atletico had to play the last 25 minutes of the game with ten men after Angel Correa received a straight red card. The Argentine international elbowed Antonio Rudiger, but Simeone believes the knock shouldn’t have convinced the referee to send Correa off.

“A contact is not a blow,” Simeone told DAZN. “Football is a physical game.

“If I’m not mistaken, Rudiger measures 1.94 metres. If it was apparently such a brutal blow, it would have left him sitting down, but he immediately gets up.

“It may be a yellow [card] but sending a player off for that, there would be no players left on the field.”

Despite the red card, Atletico managed to get ahead through a brilliant header from Jose Gimenez. However, the hosts escaped the defeat when Alvaro scored his maiden Real Madrid goal in the 85th minute.

Simeone went on to criticize the La Liga referees for favouring the Blancos, adding: “It’s the same story. It is normal, and it has become normal [referees favouring Madrid] and that’s not right and it would be nice if we could all compete in the same way.”

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