Arbeloa: “Nobody understands that you can send off a player for something like that in a game like this”

The Real Madrid coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, expressed that “no one understands” that the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic sent off the Real Madrid footballer Eduardo Camavinga “for something like that in a match like this”, after retaining the ball after committing a foul, at the same time that he confessed that the locker room is “very hurt” after the elimination from the Champions League.

“No one understands that you can send off a player for something like that in a match like this. It is clear that the tie has ended at that moment and it is something totally inexplicable, unfair. We are very hurt because the tie has gone in a way that you cannot control,” the man from Salamanca assessed the expulsion of the French midfielder in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.

Arbeloa insisted that the locker room was “very hurt” after the 4-3 defeat and elimination from the Champions League “especially because of the form.” “From here I also congratulate Bayern for the great tie they have had, but we would have liked them to beat us in a different way than how it happened, with an inexplicable expulsion that no one still understands,” he continued.

“That’s why that feeling of injustice and anger and the pain that my players feel of seeing how the work, the effort, the sacrifice and everything they have done on the field has been thrown to the ground in an action like the one the referee has had,” he lamented.

The Slovenian referee showed Camavinga the second yellow card for retaining the ball after committing a foul in the 86th minute. “I think he got the card precisely because he didn’t know he already had one, because the Bayern players had to go and tell him it was the second one,” he said.

“Not even a yellow card is worth it in a match like this to condition a player for that. I believe that referees many times either do not play football or do not understand these types of actions, how to handle them better,” he directly criticized Vincic.

After the expulsion, Luis Díaz and Michael Olise completed the Bavarian victory that left the whites without a Champions League. “I feel very proud for the fans, for all those who have traveled, for those who are at home and for the club, because if this defeat hurts me for something, it is because this year we are not going to win the ‘Sixteenth’ and, above all, because of the way,” he repeated.

“I don’t know if something positive can be achieved right now, I am the one responsible for the defeats and I will always assume the consequences of a defeat like this, because I think the fans have to be very proud of their players, of how they have given their soul, their life, of the personality they have shown,” he defended.

And after the elimination, the media insisted on the future of the Salamanca coach. “It doesn’t worry me at all and I will perfectly understand all the decisions that the club may make. I am a man of the house, if I am hurt today it is not because of me, it is because of Real Madrid, for the players, for the fans and not for me, because I care very little about my future. I feel that I have given everything I could to try to help win every day,” he said.

“Right now I am not thinking about any of that at all and I repeat that it is the club’s decision and I am a man of the club and the only thing I want is for Real Madrid to win regardless of who is sitting on the bench,” Arbeloa concluded.