Real decide against appeal after Espanyol defeat

Real Madrid have decided not to ask for Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Espanyol to be annulled although they are sticking to their claim that the referee had blown his whistle before awarding the winning goal.

"Some refereeing errors are acceptable and others aren't This was not acceptable," Real Madrid president Florentino Perez told a news conference on Tuesday.

"But we have decided not to ask for the result to be overturned out of respect for our opponents Espanyol."

Espanyol scored 22 minutes before the end of the Primera Liga match when defender Daniel Jarque headed in an Ivan de la Pena free kick.

But Real players and coaching staff said referee Julian Rodriguez Santiago blew his whistle for an infringement in the area just before Jarque scored.

Real ended the game with nine players after defender Sergio Ramos was sent off for a body check on De la Pena as he surged through the midfield and forward Julio Baptista was red carded for a studs-up challenge on Jonathan Soriano.

Both players received one-match bans as a result of their dismissals.

Real, who are 15th in the standings with three points from three games, say video footage confirms the referee blew before the goal and that the soundtrack rules out the possibility of the whistle having come from the crowd.

Espanyol coach Miguel Angel Lotina said that the fact that Real had considered asking for the game to be replayed was a way of distracting from the problems the team has been experiencing on the pitch.

"The real problem for Madrid is not that they lost the three points at Montjuic but that other sides with far worse players are winning trophies because they are playing as a team. Until they realise that then they will keep making the same mistakes," Lotina said.

"For me, I would gladly give them the points because the sensation of winning the game is far more important to me than the three points which are a mere anecdote."

As well as losing their last two league games Real were trounced 3-0 in their opening Champions League match by Olympique Lyon.