Xabi Alonso said he wasn't convinced by the referee's explanation for the decision to send off Dean Huijsen in Real Madrid's 2-1 win at Real Sociedad on Saturday.
Centre-back Huijsen was shown a straight red card in the 32nd minute -- for what referee Jesus Gil interpreted as a last-man challenge on Mikel Oyarzabal -- with Madrid leading 1-0 thanks to Kylian Mbappé's early goal, leaving the visitors to play with ten men at the Reale Arena.
Arda Güler doubled Madrid's lead before half-time, before Oyarzabal converted a penalty in the 56th minute, to make for a nervous end to the game, as Madrid held on to make it four wins out of four in LaLiga.
"For me, it was a yellow card," Alonso said in his postmatch news conference when asked about Huijsen's foul on Oyarzabal. "[Eder] Militao was close. The ball wasn't under control. There were still 40 metres to go.
"It's my interpretation, the referee had another, and the VAR had another. I asked for an explanation and it didn't convince me much, but let's leave it there ... Winning at Anoeta is always very difficult, and today it was even more difficult."
Alonso described Huijsen -- who has now been sent off twice since joining Madrid this summer -- as "relieved" and "angry" after the win.
The coach admitted the defender's foul was "avoidable" but said he disagreed with the decision to punish it with a red card.
"When there are clear errors, I like VAR to intervene," Alonso said. "I don't want to make this a monologue about the referee ... It conditioned the game a lot."
Alonso had a long, animated discussion with the referee on the field at the final whistle.
"We talked about his interpretation," Alonso said. "It didn't convince me much. But there it is, we can't do anything. Let's see if other explanations convince me."
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"The red card changed the game a bit," scorer Mbappé -- who now has four goals in LaLiga this season -- told Real Madrid TV. "We suffered as a team, but we go home with the three points."
The club's TV channel said on Saturday that Madrid were "preparing a dossier" of refereeing decisions this season, and over the last year, which they would be "sending to FIFA" so that world football's governing body would "take notice of what was happening with referees."
Madrid have frequently complained about the standard of refereeing in Spain in recent seasons.
This summer, the Spanish football federation implemented widespread changes in its refereeing committee, the CTA -- including appointing a new president, and head of VAR -- in a bid to address some of that criticism.