Sevilla coach: They perhaps wanted to keep the points gap narrow before the clásico

Luis García Plaza, Sevilla's head coach, criticized referee Busquets Ferrer for his decisions during the match against Real Madrid, expressing his anger at the failure to send off Arda Güler, and stating that his team was deprived of playing a large part of the match with a numerical advantage.

Sevilla's coach said: "I hope you all write a headline that says: elbow strike and that's it. Playing 11 against 11 deserved a win, but we were denied the chance to play another match. Since the 25th minute, we should have been playing against ten players. Piqué was shouting: He hit me, he hit me! It's a red card."

Garcia Plaza added that there was a foul not given in the build-up to Real Madrid's second goal, explaining: "It is true that there was a foul against Ori in the second goal, but it does not warrant a red card, just a foul. I was told that the incident did not appear on the television screen, even though it is very clear."

Sevilla's coach stated: "Perhaps we would have lost in the end, but we should have played from the 25th minute with the score at 0-0, with 11 players against 10, for 65 minutes. This is the summary of the match. Real Madrid deserved to win when both teams were at full strength, but there is another match we could not play due to the red card not being counted."

He continued: "The referee should have sent off Arda Güler, it was a clear red card, we should have played with 11 against 10 for 70 minutes. Mbappé's first goal should have been disallowed because there was a foul by Konaté."

He concluded his remarks: "I don't know why VAR didn't call the referee, maybe because Real Madrid can't afford to drop more points before the Clasico. Perhaps because if they let us win tonight, they would be 9 points behind."