Inigo Martinez has congratulated Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea for his refereeing of Saturday’s Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid, especially given the hype in the hours leading up to the game.
Barcelona centre-back Inigo Martinez congratulated referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea and the team of referees for the Copa del Rey final for their performance at a ‘complicated’ moment, with a lot of ‘commotion’, following Real Madrid’s approach on the eve of the match at the press conference and training session at La Cartuja due to the statements made by the referees.
“I would like to congratulate Richi (De Burgos) and his team-mates who have played at a very high level. I hope we all do because it was very unfair to reach those levels. We have to support them because we all fail in life and it’s hard what they go through. Nobody likes to be in that situation,” he said in the mixed zone.
“We knew that there was a lot of commotion around them and that it was going to be complicated but they knew how to stay and I’m happy for Richi because he’s a great guy. Professionalism never fails and for our part it was about proving that we were better as we have done,” he added.
Martinez celebrated Barcelona’s second title of the season and looked ahead to the remainder of the season. “We are doing well. We knew that it was our day, that the team came here psyched up and that’s how it was. Any other team against Madrid with 1-2 would have fallen and we knew that we had to wait for the moment and the strength of the group got us through the game”.