Real Madrid Add Fuel To Atletico Derby Fire With Refereeing Complaints

Real Madrid's complaints about refereeing have created an even tenser atmosphere than usual around their crunch La Liga derby clash with Atletico Madrid on Saturday. League leaders Madrid host their city rivals, second and trailing by a single point, at the Santiago Bernabeu, after a tumultuous week in Spanish football. Last weekend Los Blancos dropped three points in a shock defeat at Espanyol, after which they sent the Spanish football federation a letter blasting La Liga refereeing as "rigged".

Madrid were left raging after Espanyol defender Carlos Romero scythed down Kylian Mbappe, avoiding a red card before going on to score the winner.

Carlo Ancelotti left Mbappe out of his squad which beat Leganes on Wednesday to reach the Copa del Rey semi-finals, saying the striker had a bruised calf.

The French superstar will most likely return to face Atletico for the first time since joining Los Blancos. Mbappe missed the 1-1 draw in September at the Metropolitano stadium with a hamstring problem.

Madrid scraped a late 3-2 win over Leganes which saw them avoid a draining extra 30 minutes of extra-time.

"The team is in good shape, we left some players out to rest and to be ready for Saturday," Ancelotti said.

Madrid's vigorous complaints about refereeing have not gone unnoticed across town.

"Can you help us with the nuances of the following verbs? pressure, scare, intimidate, coerce, frighten, influence, impose..." Atletico wrote in a sardonic message on X, in the wake of Madrid's letter.

Atletico striker Antoine Griezmann said he was unhappy about the situation, including the focus in the media on Madrid's statement.

"Now the referees will be afraid of making mistakes because they know they are being watched," the French