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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Ben Hayward

Zinedine Zidane 'tired' of critics saying Real Madrid 'only win because of referees'

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says he is 'tired' of people attributing his side's success to favourable refereeing decisions.

Los Blancos beat Athletic Club 1-0 at San Mames on Sunday in a second successive match decided by a Sergio Ramos penalty.

VAR intervened to award the spot-kick after the referee initially waved away Madrid's appeals when Marcelo went down under a challenge from Dani Garcia.

The Madrid skipper scored from 12 yards out, but was at the centre of an incident shortly afterwards when he looked to stamp on Raul Garcia's foot in the area - although it seemed unintentional and the ball was not close by - while there was also a possible aggression from the defender on Dani Garcia.

(AFP via Getty Images)

"I'm tired [of it]," Zidane said afterwards. "We always talk about the same thing. It seems as if we only win games because of the referees.

"We are on the pitch and people have to respect Madrid and the players, who are on the pitch. The referee went to look at the play and he gave a penalty because it's a penalty."

Asked about the incident involving Ramos and Raul Garcia and Ramos, he said: "What can I say? I can't say anything.

"Everyone has their opinion. I never get involved with referees. They do their job. There's an image. They look at it and make the calls."

And he added: "Nothing is going to take away our objective. We are focused on football and nothing else."

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