Villarreal coach Unai Emery and Barcelona defender Gerard Pique have traded barbs over the state of refereeing in Spain.

Emery was upset seeing VAR deny his team a goal in their 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid, while he took a swipe at Pique for commenting on Casemiro's penalty won for Real Madrid in victory over Valencia.

Emery said: "What happened to Piqué here recently was a hand and a penalty, he clearly touched the hand and we lost that game. It hurt me that he said nothing later. Today is not a hand, because he pushes the ball towards the goal with his hips. The hand is there, but that is not the hand. The Piqué thing was, and yesterday he got on Twitter protesting other games.

"What you have to be is sincere and not confuse people. Instead of shutting up, he said what he said to mislead people. You are neither honest nor loyal to VAR and football. Today the ball hit him with his hip and he will have seen that it has grazed his hand. I would not have whistled it, but he has whistled it and I accept it."

Pique later responded, stating: "A person speaks who 3 years later was still complaining about the referee at 6-1. Get over it, Unai."

Pique was referring to Barca's Champions League win against Emery's PSG three years ago.