Iraola: “Whether the victory is fair or not, they have had the success that we have not had”

Rayo Vallecano manager Andoni Iraola spoke about what the club did technically against Real Madrid in their 1-0 away loss in a post-match interview via MARCA.

“Whether the victory is fair or not, they have had the success that we have not had. In football, to be able to add you have to have above all success in the areas, we in attack have not succeeded.”

“We pitched the game in a lower block than usual, assuming we lost some ball possession, but we didn’t give them as many spaces. In that sense, the work of the team has been very good. We have continued to arrive a lot, especially on the outside.”

“Before his [Karim Benzema] goal, we had a very clear opportunity and whether to add or not depends many times on that. They have scored the goal and we have not.”

Iraola was asked about the controversial Casemiro tackle on Rayo midfielder Oscar Valentin, which was not given a red card. He seemed perplexed by what is and isn’t considered worthy of a match penalty.

“There are different criteria. Sometimes, they kick you out for nothing and sometimes they don’t kick you out for serious entries. The result of the action has been that one has had to leave so that he is not kicked out and the other has been injured. Var will have seen the play and will have considered it not to be red.”

“I don’t know how the criterion works. Today, they have even sent off a Getafe player, although I have not seen it repeated many times, for a much less dangerous action. They explain things to you, but I don’t know the criteria. One of the criteria that follows is that the entry is with excessive force, and it is evident that this has been the case. I don’t know the reason why VAR sometimes comes in and sometimes doesn’t.”

Iraola gave his thoughts on what is now Rayo’s seventh match without a win. He says the effort and work put into the match aren’t worth anything if the result doesn’t follow.

“This is going to add up. In the second half, we are probably more concerned about the results than the game. We know what we’re playing, and the team is doing a lot of things well, but we have to monetize that much better. We all want to add up. Today, it was a complex match and it escaped us in the 83rd minute. Effort, work and concentration for classification purposes are worth zero.”