Ref Perez Burrull Too Strict With Valencia Players - Unai Emery

Valencia scrapped out a 1-1 draw at Deportivo La Coruna Sunday night despite being forced to play the final 15 minutes of the contest without the services of David Villa.

The striker, who scored Los Che’s opener 24 minutes into the game, was given his marching orders after picking up two curious yellow cards: one for alleged time wasting for refusing to leave the pitch for treatment, and the other for what looked like an accidental stomp on Depor goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia as both challenged for the ball.

The sending off led to the Galicians' equaliser shortly after and Valencia coach Unai Emery was bitterly critical of the man in black, Perez Burrull.

“The referee was a lot stricter with us than he was with our opponents,” he told reporters during the post-match interviews.

“He rarely blew the whistle when Depor committed fouls and he barely showed them any cards. But he wasn’t afraid to book my players and the second yellow to Villa was simply unjust.”

Despite his unfavourable comments about the refereeing performance, Emery chose to look on the brighter side of things.

He said, “We wanted to continue working on our defence and to keep a clean sheet. We did not achieve that tonight but we are getting better, although we had to sacrifice our attacking fluency.

“A single point is good enough, eventhough we really wanted to win. It is necessary to draw positives from his game and learn from the negatives.”

Valencia have now slipped down to fifth place in the Primera Division standings, two points off the Champions League-qualifying zone. 

KS Leong, Goal.com