Raul on referee controversy in Castilla’s win: “We all make mistakes”

Real Madrid Castilla came away with their first win of the season on Saturday night as they beat Unionistas 1 - 0 through an Alvaro Rodriguez goal.

But Castilla were unlucky not to win this by two goals. Rodriguez himself had another goal disallowed which was legal and should’ve counted.

Raul made a few changes to his nominal starting XI, in search of finding answers to Castilla’s poor start to the season. New signing Iker Bravo made his first start for the team, while Mario de Luis was given a chance to start as the team’s goalkeeper. That decision turned out to be a safe choice, as the Spanish goalkeeper made several important saves while Unionistas were the better team to start the game and created several chances.

Where Castilla found success was through counter-attacks and taking advance of Unionista’s high defensive line. Pablo Ramon’s beautiful ball over the top to Rodriguez proved to be the decisive moment of the game:

Rodriguez should’ve had a second goal before half-time, but was flagged for a phantom offside:

Raul, naturally, was asked about the referee after the game.

“Referee controversy? We all make mistakes: players, referees, coaches,” Raul said. “It’s part of the game and you have to adapt to the fact that sometimes they take away from you and other times they give to you.”

Raul was also asked about Iker Bravo, who made his debut for Castilla with Carlo Ancelotti in attendance at Estadio Alfredo di Stefano.

“Iker Bravo arrives with a lot of enthusiasm and I think he can contribute a lot,” the Castilla manager said. “His growth will help us to be even more competitive.”