Real Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa and his Barcelona counterpart Gerard Pique have had a cyber spat, following Los Blancos’ contentious win over Elche on Wednesday night.
Pique was watching the game on television, and tweeted his incredulity when Madrid were awarded a dubious last-minute penalty, which allowed them to claim all three points.
“Viendo una película de humor por el Canal + Liga.. Siempre va bien a estas horas de la noche!” Pique tweeted, which roughly translates as: I’m watching a comedy on Canal + La Liga. There’s always something good to watch at this time of the night!”
He was insinuating that the decision to award Madrid a spot-kick was hilarious.
However, most Real fans were quick to point out the irony that Pique did not seem too concerned when Barca were awarded a similarly contentious penalty, in a tight game against Sevilla recently.
Arbeloa is clearly of the same opinion, and replied to Pique’s tweet with his own tongue-in-cheek response, and a photo of his satisfied team-mates.
“Muy contentos con los 3 puntos! Me alegro de que algunos cambien el teatro por el cine, eso siempre esta bien!” he said. (Very happy with the three points! I’m glad that some people are changing the cinema for the theatre- that’s always good!)
Elche claimed that they had been “robbed” after they fought back from 1-0 down, and were in touching distance of a point until Pepe collapsed in the box.
But the Portuguese defender claims that he was legitimately fouled.
“You have the images,” he told Canal +.
“At the corner I tried to attack the ball, the Elche player tried to block me. He tried to grab me and we both fell and the referee whistled for a penalty. I was looking for the ball, he had his back to the ball and in no minute did he look for it. He was always trying to block me.”
Asked if he had tried to con the ref a smidgen, Pepe added: “It is difficult to say.
“He pulls at me and does not let me attack the ball. I tried to attack the ball, and he blocked me, and we both fell. I can say nothing else.”
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Watch: Pepe goes down. Is this really a penalty?