Spain’s Comite Tecnico de Arbitros has handed Real Madrid half of what Jose Mourinho asked for. In an internal assessment reported in Madrid on Monday, the CTA agreed that Kang-In Lee’s 44th-minute stamp on Fede Valverde at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano warranted a straight red card, and that Ortiz Arias should have shown it.
The committee backed the second-half red card shown to Huijsen, and it accepted the on-field call over Cristian Romero’s challenge on Jude Bellingham as a decision the referee was entitled to make.
What the CTA said about Lee
Lee caught Valverde with his studs on the left ankle in the 44th minute, and neither Ortiz Arias nor the video assistant intervened. The Real Madrid midfielder was withdrawn at the break, and the club later confirmed severe trauma to the ankle joint with further tests scheduled.
The CTA’s line is that the challenge should have been treated as serious foul play and punished with a dismissal.
Mourinho brought the photos
Mourinho did not wait for the report. He arrived at his post-match press conference with printouts of the Lee tackle and the Romero stamp on Bellingham, and pointed to both incidents as separate red-card offences the officials had waved through.
“Those were two clear red cards,” Mourinho told reporters. “Given the difficulties we faced afterward playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like.”
Real Madrid’s own channel carried the same message under the caption “A dreadful refereeing performance decides the derby.”
Huijsen red confirmed
The referees’ body did not budge on the moment that actually decided the game. Huijsen was initially booked four minutes after the break for pulling back Giuliano Simeone as the forward ran through on goal inside the box. After Ortiz Arias reviewed the pitchside monitor, the yellow was upgraded to a straight red.
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Alejandro Grimaldo converted the penalty and Jonathan David added the second in the 59th minute. Antonio Rudiger pulled one back late for Real Madrid, but Diego Simeone’s side saw the match out with ten opponents on the pitch.
The Romero yellow that stood
The Romero-Bellingham flashpoint, from the 37th minute, is described by the CTA as a confusing sequence. Ortiz Arias first booked Bellingham for the challenge, then reversed the card after a video review and cautioned Romero instead. The committee accepted the final on-field decision.
Real Madrid dropped to third in La Liga after the defeat, with Atletico climbing to second. Valverde is expected to miss two to three weeks with the ankle injury sustained in the Lee tackle.
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