Vazquez: “Protests have been penalized more than fouls”

Real Madrid secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Alavés at the Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday night, but Lucas Vázquez, who opened the scoring in the second minute, expressed mixed emotions after the game. Speaking to reporters in the mixed zone, the winger reflected on the team’s performance, their ongoing improvement, and voiced his concerns over the current state of refereeing in La Liga.

“We are happy with the victory. We played a great game until the 80th minute,” Vázquez said. “We lost concentration twice and suffered more than we should have. We didn’t deserve that ending after the game we played.

Vázquez, wearing the captain’s armband in this match, expressed optimism about the team’s progress.

“We are showing improvement. This is an upward trend, we are seeing better and better play and better things from the team. We want to continue improving to reach the important part of the season in the best possible shape,” he said. “I am very happy, it is a great pride to be the captain of this great club,”

However, Vázquez didn’t shy away from addressing one of the match’s more contentious topics: refereeing. He voiced concern about the increasing severity with which referees are handing out yellow cards for protests, citing an incident involving Fede Valverde in the third minute, among others.

“I think the referees are being very severe giving out yellow cards for protesting. Today, I think what Fede did in the third minute did not justify the card. The other day, what Kylian did was very soft,” he remarked. “In these two games, protests have been penalized more than fouls. We had two cards without having committed a single foul and they, with 10 fouls, had not even one card. I think it is something to look at, but I understand that everything will improve,”