The club beat Granada 1-0 at the Bernabeu on Saturday, but the visitors’ coach Jose Sandoval felt the hosts underestimated his side
Granada boss Jose Ramon Sandoval has accused Real Madrid of showing a lack of respect towards his side before and during Saturday’s Liga clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Los Blancos put nine goals past Granada in the same fixture last season and had gone into their latest meeting on the back of a 6-0 triumph at Espanyol and a 4-0 rout of Champions League rivals Shakhtar Donetsk.
As a result, Madrid were tipped to rack up another high-scoring win, but encountered stubborn resistance before Karim Benzema scored the only goal of the game on 55 minutes.
Sandoval said: “I want to win, win, win and win. It was difficult to come to the Bernabeu when everyone was underestimating Granada, including Real Madrid on their website.
“They asked fans to bet on how many goals they’d score against us. They showed us a lack of respect. After all the talk this week about the 9-1, we managed to put in a great performance.”
Benzema’s goal came in controversial circumstances, with Isco appearing to be offside in the build-up to the goal.
Furthermore, Granada’s Youssef El Arabi also saw a goal incorrectly disallowed for offside during the first half, so Sandoval struggled to contain his frustration with the officiating in the Spanish capital.
“I never speak about referees,” he added. “It’s other people’s job to judge them. But if we’d had some luck on our side, the result would’ve been different.
“If we’d had some luck in terms of refereeing decisions, we wouldn’t have ended the game without a goal to our name.”