Movistar’s half-time cameras followed Arda Güler all the way down the Santiago Bernabéu tunnel, and he was still talking to Peque Fernández. The Real Madrid attacker spent the walk off accusing the Sevilla defender of exaggerating the contact between them in the 24th minute to try to get him sent off.
The Turkish midfielder had caught Peque with his arm after the Sevilla man tugged his shirt during a Real Madrid attack. Referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer did not stop play for a red card, and the video assistant referee did not call him over to the pitchside monitor.
Five minutes later Güler curled in the opener. Kylian Mbappé added a second shortly before the break, converted a 63rd-minute penalty, and Yan Diomande finished off a 4-1 win that Manu Bueno briefly interrupted for Sevilla. Vinícius Júnior, serving a four-match ban after the Villarreal game, was not in the squad.
‘Eleven against ten from the 25th minute’
Sevilla manager Luis García Plaza did not hide his anger in his press conference. He told reporters the match should have been played a man up for more than an hour.
Read also: Antonelli still leads F1 2026, but the fastest car now belongs to Verstappen
“From the 25th minute onwards, we should have been playing eleven against ten.”
“Eleven against eleven, they deserved to win, but they’ve robbed us of the chance to play another match.”
He also questioned the second goal and the broader pattern of decisions in the game.
“It’s true that there was a foul on Ure for the second goal; it wasn’t a red card offence, but it was a foul.”
Read also: Borussia Dortmund confirm major setback for €30m signing after worrying scenes in Berlin
“We fell apart a bit after the second goal, perhaps because of those incidents. But the truth is that the first one was a 100 per cent VAR decision, very clear.”
Then he pointed at the fixture a week away.
“Why didn’t VAR call him over? Maybe so they wouldn’t be nine points behind heading into El Clásico.”
Kike Salas: ‘A clear red card’
Sevilla defender Kike Salas spoke to Movistar at half-time, with his team still 2-0 down. He was unequivocal about the elbow.
Read also: Drove pickup into a youth soccer game and killed two: driver walks free
“I think we were in control of the match until Guler’s goal, even though before that he struck Peque with his elbow, which I consider an offence that warrants a clear red card.”
“He told me that he struck him with his elbow clearly, and I trust him. I’m going to watch the replay now, but I don’t know why the video assistant referee did not intervene.”
The referees’ committee explains itself
Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees issued a justification that only sharpened the row. The official line, as reported by Goal, was that “there was no conclusive evidence that Guler had committed violent conduct warranting a sending off.” Refereeing sources added that VAR is bound by the broadcast feed and that “no clear angle existed to prove the incident conclusively.”
That reasoning was dismissed by Sevilla’s own camp as circular: the broadcaster’s cameras, Salas argued, had shown enough.
Mourinho: ‘Nobody has shown me the image’
Real Madrid head coach José Mourinho was taken through the incident afterwards and refused to engage with it.
“Nobody has been able to show me what they say happened. There aren’t any images.”
“I’ve asked for TV images, and for images from my staff who have the tactical camera, and I haven’t been able to see any image.”
Barcelona top the table and Real Madrid chase them into El Clásico at Camp Nou on Sunday, 25 October, kick-off 9pm local time.
Read also: Archer born without arms matches the compound para archery world record in Nagoya
