Roncero: Real Madrid’s win cannot be explained by refereeing decisions alone

Tomas Roncero, editor-in-chief of AS and a prominent Real Madrid supporter, has criticised Jose Luis Munuera Montero’s handling of several contentious incidents in Real Madrid’s 3-0 La Liga victory over Racing Santander at El Sardinero.

Roncero acknowledged that the penalty awarded to Kylian Mbappe early in the match should not have been given, but argued that Real Madrid were denied a separate penalty for a challenge on Diomande inside the area.

The journalist focused on two incidents: the penalty awarded to Mbappe after about 10 minutes and the later challenge involving Diomande, which he believed warranted intervention from the referee.

“The referee denied Diomande a very clear penalty, while Mbappe’s, for me, was not a penalty,” Roncero said.

He accepted that there had been contact between the Racing Santander defender and Mbappe, but felt it did not meet the threshold for a foul.

“It is true that he put his arm on him, but that does not mean that nothing happened. Even so, I do not think the contact deserved a penalty,” he added.

Roncero’s strongest criticism was directed at the failure of the video assistant referee to review the incident involving Diomande. He questioned why the VAR officials had not asked Munuera Montero to examine the challenge.

“I do not understand why the VAR room did not ask the referee to review the challenge on Diomande, because in my view that hit deserved a yellow card,” Roncero said. “If it deserved a booking, that means it was a foul, and the referee should have been alerted to it.”

He said the contrasting treatment of the two incidents showed a lack of consistency. VAR did not intervene over the challenge on Diomande, he argued, but did call the referee to review the penalty decision involving Mbappe.

Roncero also rejected the suggestion that his assessment was influenced by the identity of the teams or players involved. He said he would have taken the same view had Lamine Yamal been on the receiving end of a similar challenge that went unpunished.

His comments came as he defended Real Madrid’s performance despite the refereeing debate surrounding the match. Roncero said discussion of the penalty decisions had overshadowed the clear superiority of Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

He believed the result would have been unchanged even if Mbappe’s penalty had not been awarded. Real Madrid, he said, were comfortably the better team, won 3-0 and could have scored more, while goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was required to make only one save.

Roncero concluded by criticising those who reduce the match entirely to refereeing decisions.

“Anyone who thinks Real Madrid only talk about refereeing either does not understand football or is deliberately ignoring what really happened on the pitch,” he said.