Real Madrid vs Almeria: VAR Audio After Contentious Vinicius Jr, Bellingham Calls Released

• The Spanish football federation has released VAR audio for the Real Madrid vs Almeria game
• The La Liga clash was marred by three controversial VAR calls in favour of the capital club
• The result helped the Los Blancos maintain pressure on surprise league leaders, Girona

Real Madrid's dramatic comeback to beat Almeria 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu on January 21 has continued to elicit sharp reactions.

Bottom-placed club Almeria was well on its way to recording a huge victory on the home turf of the record European winners, only for the Video Assistant Referee to make a series of controversial decisions.

Largie Ramazani opened the scoring after 38 seconds before Edgar Gonzalez doubled the lead two minutes before halftime for Gaizka Garitanoá's men.

Real Madrid vs Almeria VAR decisions

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The Los Blancos, however, turned the tide against the visitors, with Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior restoring parity before Dani Carvajal grabbed the winner deep into stoppage time.

Bellingham's 14th goal of the season was from the penalty spot from a debatable handball claim, with Antonio Rudiger's supposed foul in the build-up also being waved off. The VAR audio on how the officials made the decisions has been released by La Liga, as translated by the Daily Mail.

VAR audio for Real Madrid vs Almeria

VAR: I recommend an on-field review so that you can assess a possible penalty due to a handball by the Almería defender.'

Ref: Okay, The Madrid player tries to score and the ball hits the arm, with the Almeria defender occupying space. I'm going to call a penalty without a card

For the second Real Madrid goal, the ball appeared to hit Vinicius Jr's arm on its way to the back of the net, but that, too, was ratified by the VAR.

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VAR called the centre referee's attention to the incident, advising him to review it. The on-field decision was to disallow the goal, but upon review, the officials concluded that the ball had struck the Brazilian's shoulder.

VAR: I recommend an on-field review so that you can assess the non-handball. The ball hits the right shoulder; there you have it. The ball hits him on the shoulder.

Ref: I agree with you, and the ball hits the shoulder. Give me one more frame. Perfect, he hits it with his shoulder and it's a valid goal. I'm going to give the goal; there's no foul.

Carlo Ancelotti defends referee

Sports Brief has also reported that Ancelotti jumped to the defence of the referee after the game. The Italian tactician argued that the results were on point after his team grabbed the three points dramatically.

Almeria was denied a third goal that could have put the game beyond Real Madrid's reach due to a soft foul in the build-up.