Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 6y

Real Madrid's Casemiro 'acts like a bully, a guy in a nightclub' - Jose Angel

Eibar left-back Jose Angel has criticised Casemiro's "tough-guy attitude," saying the Real Madrid midfielder's behaviour at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday was "awful."

Casemiro was booked during the first half of his side's 3-0 victory for forcefully recriminating with rival players after Eibar did not put the ball out of play to allow Dani Ceballos to receive medical attention.

Play continued, with Ceballos getting back to his feet and resuming action, but when the ball finally went out of play a shoving contest broke out which led referee Alfonso Alvarez Izquierdo to show yellow cards to both Casemiro and Eibar striker Charles.

Speaking in the mixed zone after the game, Jose Angel said he had not been impressed by the "bullying" shown by his former Porto teammate Casemiro.

"We played together at Porto, so for me it was awful what he did," Jose Angel said. "This tough-guy attitude does not suit him. I don't care if he plays for Madrid or Manchester United. He acts like a bully, a guy in a nightclub. And even more as we know each other. But I won't worry about it."

Later in the game, Casemiro was involved in another controversy when he appeared to catch Eibar winger Takashi Inui in the Madrid area.

Although Eibar coach Jose Luis Mendilibar said afterwards that it had not been a penalty, some Catalan pundits at the time called for a spot kick.

This led Madrid supporters on social media and elsewhere to fight back against what they saw as bias towards Barcelona from La Liga referees, with the officials not spotting that the ball had run out of play before the Catalan side's first goal in Saturday's 2-0 win over Malaga.

Marca's front cover on Sunday ran the headline "An Inexplicable Help," while inside the newspaper there was further talk about how Madrid president Florentino Perez is hoping to use current turmoil at La Liga to shake up the system by which referees are appointed and managed.

Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was asked after the Eibar game if he felt incidents such as these were hastening the arrival of video assistant referee (VAR) technology to help referees get big decisions right.

"It's inevitable," Zidane said. "It'll help things and it's a logical step. Sooner or later it'll be in place in every ground throughout the world."

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