Barcelona: Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has labeled Real Madrid's players 'bad losers' and 'animals' after his club won their latest ill-tempered match-up and the fall-out that thrilling victory continued to dominate the sports headlines in Spain on Friday.
Barcelona eliminated cup holders Real Madrid from the Copa del Rey quarter-finals with Wednesday's 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou, after a match full of disputed refereeing decisions.
El Mundo newspaper's website released Barca TV footage on Friday of Xavi caught off camera speaking about the game.
"In the changing room, they were (complaining). They're unbelievable - they don't know how to lose," the Spain midfielder said.
Xavi's comments will do little to calm the tense rivalry as he also labeled Madrid players "animals" for their physical challenges, specifically Lassana Diarra after the Madrid midfielder escaped a second booking in the closing moments of the first half.
"I said to him, you just showed (Lionel) Messi a yellow card and now the second one, what happened to it? Send him off," Xavi said he told referee Fernando Teixeira, adding: "It's the player who is responsible, especially if you challenge like an animal."
Madrid ended the match with 10 men after Sergio Ramos was sent off in the 88th minute for catching Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets in the face with his arm as the two jumped for a header, and Madrid were vocal in their criticism of Teixeira.
Ramos used his official Twitter account to accuse Busquets, another Spanish World-Cup winning colleague, of feigning injury. "I'm pleased the club (Real) are going to appeal my second yellow card because although some don't stop rolling around all over the place, I didn't touch him," Ramos wrote.
Madrid assistant coach Aitor Karanka, speaking instead of coach Jose Mourinho as he often does, responded to Xavi's statements on Friday.
"Of course Real Madrid know how to accept losing, but not in that manner," Karanka said.
Mourinho criticized Teixeira in the post-game news conference and reportedly waited for the referee after the game to voice his opinion.
"What an artist, you like to mess up the work of serious professionals. Teixeira, you'll go and smoke a cigar now and laugh without feeling any bit of shame," El Mundo Deportivo newspaper quoted Mourinho as saying to Texeira, publishing a photo of the coach in the Camp Nou car park.
Mourinho's spokesman Eladio Parames confirmed what the Portuguese had said on his official Twitter account, while Karanka offered a qualified defence of Mourinho.
"Everyone knows our coach has a certain way of being, and there are times when he is OK and others when he's not," Karanka said.
While Madrid played perhaps their best match against Barcelona since Mourinho's arrival in 2010, the team has lost nine times and won only once in the last 14 matches against their fiercest rivals.
Madrid lead the Spanish league by five points at the half-way point of the season, with three-time defending champions Barcelona in second spot.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - Agencies)