Thibaut Courtois: “The referee took energy away from us”

Thibaut Courtois, who played his 100th game for Real Madrid tonight, spoke to the media after Real Madrid’s 1 - 1 draw away to Elche.

Right on cue, after Casemiro said “We don’t speak about the referee”, Courtois spoke about the referee.

“The referee took energy away from us,” Courtois said. “We were more concerned with protesting than doing what we had to do.”

Courtois also spoke about Benzema’s denied penalty in the first half, which he felt should’ve been called since Carvajal’s foul was called which led to Elche’s penalty.

“If you whistle for one grab, you have to whistle for the other”,

Courtois also emphasized the importance of staying focused despite the disappointment of tonight’s result.

“It’s three points that have slipped away from us, but we mustn’t feel too down because we’ve been on a very good run and are performing well. It wasn’t down to being over-confident. They equalised through a penalty, they play some good stuff and defend with two very compact lines close to their box, which makes it difficult to create any sort of danger. We managed to fashion two or three chances that Edgar did well to keep out”.

“We’ve enjoyed a good run of form in December and it’s a shame to have dropped two points here, but we’ve got to keep going. We’ve now got a home game against Celta and that’ll be a tough one. We’ll be back in training tomorrow as we begin our preparations for that game”.