Valencia winger Andres Guardado has slammed Real Madrid for influencing the decisions of match officials through pre-match comments.

Los Che were beaten 2-0 by Blancos at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday, in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarter-final, but after the game much of the talk circulated around several contentious offside calls that went against the visitors.

“It is fairly obvious that if he hadn’t given those offsides against Soldado, the result could have been different,” he told Goal.com.

“Sometimes it can benefit you, sometimes it can damage you, that’s all there is to it. They like to speak about referees a lot, and in this case it has benefited them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the same for everyone.”

The two teams go head to head again on Sunday, in La Liga, before contesting the second leg of their cup clash next Tuesday.

But despite venting his anger towards Madrid, Guardado believes his side had more than enough chances to win the game, without relying on the intervention of the referee.

“We had opportunities, and if we had scored them, maybe it would have been a different game.”