'He was relieved!' - Xabi Alonso reveals Dean Huijsen reaction to red card after Real Madrid win over Real Sociedad

Huijsen was given his marching orders with Los Blancos nursing a 1-0 lead. Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring after ten minutes. Following Huijsen's dismissal, Arda Guler added a second just before the stroke of halftime, and ground out a big win despite Oyarzabal converting a penalty. Alonso said the 22-year-old was "relieved" his mistake did not cost his side the game. 

Alonso questioned the referee's decision, suggesting Oyarzabal did not have the ball under control and Eder Militao was providing cover for the attack. The decision saw an intervention from VAR, which Alonso also questioned. Despite his protestations with the officiating, was quick to put the focus back on his side's performance, praising their ability to find the second goal despite the adversity. 

On Huijsen's red card Alonso said: "For me, it was a yellow card. Mili was close by and the ball wasn’t under control. After watching the replay, I haven’t changed my mind. I asked, he gave me his explanation, and I wasn’t convinced. And I’ll leave it at that. It changed the context of the match, and we played with 10 men for 60 minutes. We had chances and scored the second goal to give ourselves some breathing room. The team knew how to sacrifice themselves and put in a generous effort. Winning at Anoeta is always very difficult, and today, if anything, it was even more difficult.”

On the VAR intervention, he added: "When there are obvious mistakes, I like VAR to intervene, but when there aren’t, I understand that it shouldn’t get involved. I don’t want to make the referee a recurring theme. It’s time to move on.”

On Huijsen's emotions after the game, Alonso said: "He was relieved. Obviously angry, but relieved with the victory. These are avoidable actions, there was a lot of space and Oyarzabal didn’t have the ball under control. The gesture could be improved.”

Huijsen will look to improve on his mistake — GOAL gave the young defender a 2/10 for his performance against Sociedad — in his Champions League debut against Marseille on Tuesday night.