Mourinho sees no red card in Guler incident as Garcia Plaza slams VAR after Real Madrid's 4-1 win over Sevilla

Real Madrid's 4-1 win over Sevilla at the Santiago Bernabeu, in matchday nine of LaLiga EA Sports, left a clear rout on the scoreboard but also a controversy that dominated much of the postgame press conferences: a 25th minute incident between Arda Guler and Peque that, according to Sevilla, deserved a straight red card and that VAR never reviewed.

Jose Mourinho, the Real Madrid coach, chose to play down the matter, though he made clear he had no intention of dodging the topic. Still, he insisted that no matter how hard he looked, he found nothing to back Sevilla's complaint. "I want to get away from the question that for you is the big controversy. Nobody has been able to show me what they say happened, I don't have a single image. I asked for footage from the broadcast, from my analysts, who have the tactical camera, which lets you see things you can't see on the TV broadcast, and I haven't been able to see any footage of the things they're talking about, the things that bothered Luis," the Portuguese coach explained.

The Madrid boss went further and floated a kind of commitment for the future, leaving the door open without giving any ground for now. "If one day something happens that I think benefited us, I won't have any problem coming out and saying so, but I think the opposite is going to happen to us far more often, because that's the natural tendency of things. Great win for Real Madrid, I didn't see absolutely anything. If by Saturday someone sends me clear, objective footage of something I haven't seen, something my player also tells me didn't happen, I'll be there, but for now, nothing," he insisted.

Has any of you seen it? Do you have footage that would let me see it? That's why I don't understand the obsession, after four questions, with that story.Jose Mourinho

Mourinho also declined to weigh in on the controversy from another match that weekend, Betis against Barcelona, simply because he hadn't watched it: he had been reviewing Sevilla ahead of the game. "I watched Leipzig, even though I only wanted to think about Sevilla, but the homework on Sevilla was already done. I heard the chatter, but it's no surprise to me either. Another day at the office," he said.

Garcia Plaza, furious: "It's a VAR play, one hundred percent"

In the other press room, the mood was completely different. Luis Garcia Plaza, the Sevilla coach, emerged visibly angry and held nothing back against the officiating. For him there's no doubt: Guler's challenge on Peque should have ended in a sending off and a VAR review that never came. "Why doesn't VAR call him in? Maybe so they don't reach nine points before the Clasico. It's a 100% clear VAR play, we're furious," he said.

The Sevilla coach went further and asked for the play to get media attention. "I hope everyone runs it as a headline, not just Sevilla's own website. There's an eleven against eleven match that they deserve to win, but we were denied the chance to play a different match. Today we had to play with a man advantage from the 25th minute, eleven against ten. We were denied that match. It's unbelievable," he protested.

Garcia Plaza also recounted what his own player told him in the locker room. "At halftime Peque told me he'd been hit (by Guler). It's a red card. Maybe we don't win, but today we end up playing from the 25th minute, at 0-0, eleven against ten. That sums up the match," he said, though he was clear in acknowledging that, with equal numbers, the result was fair: "Eleven against eleven, nothing to say, Real Madrid deserved to win, but there's a match that can't be judged."

The Sevilla coach also took aim at the habit of big clubs complaining about officiating, something he considers unjustified given how the rules actually play out in practice. "The ones who complain the most are the ones who should complain the least: Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico. Today we're talking about one play, yesterday at Betis they talked about others. I wished the referee good luck and we spoke normally, but the ones who complain the most, and I'm talking about all three, are the ones who should complain the least," he added.

On the match itself, Garcia Plaza admitted his own team's mistakes and even dared to imagine an even heavier scoreline if his side hadn't made errors after absorbing the early psychological blow. "It's a 4-1 where we needed to do things better. Maybe the overall result could have been even bigger, a 5-2 or a 6-3, but there's a match we don't know the outcome of, and they didn't let us play it," he admitted.

Asked about the title race, the Sevilla coach doesn't see either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid in bad shape, beyond Barcelona's perfect start. "I don't see Madrid in such bad shape, nor Atletico. What's happening is that the other team is at one hundred percent of the points. If Barcelona wins everything it's going to be difficult, but I see both of them in good shape and I think it's going to be a great title race," he concluded.