Pellegrini curses VAR after defeat to Real Madrid
The combination of Real Madrid and VAR was an excessive amount of for Real Betis to cope with in Saturday's 3-2 home defeat, coach Manuel Pellegrini said after his team came away empty-handed despite outplaying the La Liga champions for elements of the game.
Betis overcame an early goal to have a 2-1 lead over Madrid at halftime.
But three interventions went just how of the champions following the interval, resulting in Madrid drawing level, Betis having defender Emerson sent off and the visitors winning a late penalty which Sergio Ramos changed into win the match.
"When you are up against Real Madrid and VAR it is an excessive amount of," Pellegrini told a news conference.
"We were much better than Real Madrid in the first half, we scored two goals and had three clear chances to score. The next half was more equal, then there is the red card, the penalty, and playing so enough time with a guy down was tough.
"While you are playing against Real Madrid and you concede a penalty and get a man sent off as a result of VAR it is extremely difficult. But I value how well we played when it had been 11 against 11."
Pellegrini, who coached Real Madrid in the 2009/10 campaign, led Betis to two wins in their first two matches of the season and was still happy with his side's performance despite the manner of the defeat.
"The positive thing is that I'm more sure than ever that people are on the right path. When we both had 11 players on the pitch, we were superior to Real Madrid," he added.
Real coach Zinedine Zidane grew tired of the regular discussions about referees in last season's title win and plainly did not desire to weigh in on the debate on Saturday.
"There's a referee and it's really his job to examine the plays. I think what happened today was fair," Zidane said.
"The referee is in charge, I never try the referees and I'm not going to do so today. The main thing is how we played, and we gave everything at a very difficult ground.
"We are happy, satisfied with the work we've done, we worked our socks off and got three important points."
