Santiago Wanderers coach Felipe Salinas spoke Tuesday about his team's build-up before the Under-20 Intercontinental Cup final, saying Real Madrid used questionable tactics to enter the match with a competitive advantage.
Last Saturday, Real Madrid was crowned U20 Intercontinental champion after beating Santiago Wanderers of Chile 3-1. Just a few days later, the South American team's coach, Felipe Salinas, spoke on TNT Sports about what he saw as tricks the merengue team used to wear them down ahead of this important match in their category.
First, he pointed out that a day before the match, they were given a tour to see the Bernabéu museum, as well as to familiarize themselves with the field: "After familiarizing ourselves with the stadium, they took us to the museum where they made us walk for more than an hour all around the stadium, going up and down stairs. There comes a point when I tell the kid, how long are you going to keep us walking? We play tomorrow; cut the tour; there is nothing more to see."
In addition, he spoke about the lack of communication his team had with the referee, the Polish Damian Sylwestrzak, since he did not speak to the players in English, as normally happens in international matches: "He did not speak in English; suddenly he would answer you in Polish or in German. We did not know what to do to make him understand us. Some things were beyond our reach..."
The latter was corroborated by goalkeeper Fabiano Avello, who stated hours after the match ended: "We had zero communication with the referee. The Real Madrid players had very fluent English, so they spoke with the referee, and we did not go beyond two words. In addition, when we tried to chat with the referee, he waved us off. In that sense, it was a great disadvantage; we did not know what the referee was telling us."
Without a doubt, it was quite a controversial match according to public opinion. It started with the first red card the referee showed the Chilean team in the 25th minute, which was controversial because of the harshness shown to Alexander Dubo, who kicked Daniel Yanez late but without much force and with the outside of his foot. If it had been with the studs, it would be another thing...
The action did not end there: in the 86th minute, after a clash of heads between the merengue player Roberto Martin and the Chilean Christopher Valenzuela, the latter received a second yellow card and became the second visitor sent off.
And in the 96th minute, it was Nicolas Carvacho who, for complaining, also received his second yellow card, ending in the third and last sending-off that the Chilean side would see in this match, which ended 3-1 in favor of Real Madrid with a record attendance for a match in the category: 52,117 spectators. This surpassed the previous edition at the Maracanã in 2025, which drew 45,656 fans.
