The defender took a swipe at the officiating as a 2-2 draw with Valencia effectively ended their title hopes
Real Madrid centre-back Pepe was furious with the refereeing as Valencia dealt a potentially fatal blow to their title hopes on Saturday.
Paco Alcacer and Javi Fuego propelled los Che into a two-goal lead by half-time and, though they fashioned a second-half comeback courtesy of goals from Pepe and Isco, Madrid ultimately dropped two points at the Santiago Bernabeu in the 2-2 draw.
Despite Carlo Ancelotti’s men being awarded a penalty on the brink of half-time – which Diego Alves impressively saved from Cristiano Ronaldo – Pepe could not resist laying a chunk of the blame at the officials’ feet.
“It’s hard,” the Portugal international told Canal Plus. “I do not want to have to talk about the referee, but football is a game of contact. The referee charged fouls against us that we did not understand.
“Andre Gomes committed lots of fouls but got away with them. It was an easy match to officiate but the referee complicated it unnecessarily.”
In addition to effectively conceding La Liga to Barcelona – who now only need to win one of their final two games to be crowned champions of Spain – Toni Kroos’ back injury was a sour point for the Blancos, and Pepe is hoping his team-mate will be fit for their Champions League semi-final decider against Juventus.
“We do not know the severity of the Kroos injury, but he has a bit of time to recover himself,” the defender added. “Let’s see if he can help us on Wednesday.
“If we play like we did in the the second half against Valencia, we will have chances to eliminate Juventus. We must to sweat for this shirt and that is what we will do. We have to brush ourselves off as on Wednesday we have a very important game.”
Madrid trail 2-1 against the Scudetto holders after the first leg in Turin and elimination this week from Europe will almost certainly end their hopes of silverware this term.