Real Madrid manager Carlos Ancelotti criticized the referee’s decision of not giving a red card to Espanyol’s defender Carlos Romero after his brutal tackle on striker Kylian Mbappe in the second half. 

Romero was shown a yellow card by referee Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz for his poor foul from behind in the 61st minute but the Italian manager said the ref should have taken out the red card.

Romero scored the winning goal in the 85th minute and thus made referee’s decision to not send him off even more painful for the Los Blancos.

“The decision the referee and the VAR took is inexplicable,” Ancelotti told a post-match news conference. “Everyone saw it. The most important thing is to protect the player. It’s a clear foul, a very ugly challenge. Fortunately nothing happened in terms of an injury, but the VAR is there for that. It’s inexplicable to us that he didn’t show a red card.”

Romero said he had apologized to Mbappé for the ugly tackle.

“I knew that it’s impossible to stop [Mbappé] on the run,” he told DAZN. “I did what I could to stop him. The challenge was a bit ugly, I didn’t like that, and I said sorry to him.”

Espanyol coach Manolo González said Romero had no intention to cause any injury to the Frenchman.

“It was a tough challenge, but it was meant to stop the counterattack, not to hurt the opponent,” González told DAZN.

The visitors were also left frustrated when Vinicius Jr’s first-half goal was disallowed after a foul by Mbappe.

“The game was difficult,” Ancelotti admitted. “We did some things well. We had control, above all in the second half, and we had chances. We had a goal ruled out, we hit the woodwork. We had 20 shots on goal. Espanyol played well in transitions, defended well, they caught us out of shape and they scored.”

Real Madrid will next take on Leganes in the quarterfinal of Copa del Rey on Wednesday.