Athletic Club’s Ernesto Valverde makes Real Madrid and Barcelona look foolish with brilliant controversy response

Athletic Club manager Ernesto Valverde has a major Copa del Rey quarter-final at home to Barcelona to prepare, but was inevitably asked about the refereeing controversy following leaked VAR audios. Los Blancos certainly were aided by VAR in their win over Almeria on Sunday, which inspired Barcelona President Joan Laporta to claim the competition was not equal. Valverde gave them an example to follow.

Valverde noted ahead of the match that he felt Barcelona were playing well, compared to the majority of commentary on them, and said his team would need to be focused on the match in order to get a result.

When the question of the referees was put to Valverde, he pointed out that Girona seemed to be carrying on without applying pressure on referees and it was working out well for them.

“The things with the referees and Barcelona and Real Madrid and so on, it’s as if it’s for consumption between them. If you call something against Madrid, you’re favouring Barcelona, if you call something against Barcelona, you’re favouring Madrid.”

“But the rest… It doesn’t matter much. I look at Girona, and I don’t think it’s affecting them at all. They’re leading the league, and playing cinematic football to boot, and I get the feeling they are not worrying about the referees much, they’re focusing on the game, and they are doing very well. The rest is… noise. We’re going to leave that there, and focus on the game.”

Girona coach Michel Sanchez had said at the weekend he felt that they were competing on a level playing field with everyone, and dismissed conspiracy theories on the matter. Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone was less forgiving of the controversy, but admitted all they could do is carry on playing.