Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini has slammed the state of refereeing after their Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.

Gasperini was furious following a 1-0 home defeat in the Round of 16, as Remo Freuler was shown a straight red card after just 17 minutes.

Gasperini fumed, "This is football suicide. We cannot have referees who never played the game and don't know the difference between a challenge and a foul.

“If they can't tell the difference, then they ought to go and get a different job, frankly. They should get people who played football to referee instead.

“Referees also have video replays now, they have everything needed to judge, and yet even with replays they get it wrong.

“You wait so long for this event and then it gets ruined. We might've lost anyway, I am not complaining about the result, but we at least could've played our game."