Real Madrid clinched a 1-0 away win Wednesday against Italian side Atalanta in a UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg match.
The home club were down to 10 men after Swiss midfielder Remo Freuler was sent off for denying Ferland Mendy a clear goalscoring opportunity in the 17th minute.
Neither team was able to break the deadlock in the first half at Stadio di Bergamo.
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However,the goal came in the 86th minute when Real Madrid’s French defender Mendy scored from a distance to give Los Galacticos the lead.
Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini has furiously called for the standard of officiating in football to improve after an early red card cost his side in a 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“The game was ruined,” Gasperini fumed into the microphones of Sky Sport Italia. “Last season, after absolute chaos, the handball rule was sorted out. Now we have the temptation to remove any form of contact in football and that is suicide for the sport,”
“I just got banned for saying something in Serie A, if I say something now then UEFA will ban me for a month. But this is football suicide. We cannot have referees who never played the game and don’t know the difference between a challenge and a foul.
“If they can’t tell the difference, then they ought to go and get a different job, frankly. They should get people who played football to referee instead.
“Referees also have video replays now, they have everything needed to judge, and yet even with replays they get it wrong.
“You wait so long for this event and then it gets ruined. We might’ve lost anyway, I am not complaining about the result, but we at least could’ve played our game.”
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