Donato: When you play against Barcelona or Real Madrid, you know the referee will favour the bigger team Atletico Madrid Ex-Atletico man spoke of recent controversies

Donato is of the belief that Barcelona and Real Madrid tend to get the rub of the green from referees following recent debatable incidents in the meeting between Los Blancos and Atletico.

Diego Simeone's side were seemingly denied a clear penalty in the Madrid derby when Casemiro brought down Alvaro Morata in the box and Donato, who played for Los Rojiblancos for five seasons, gave his opinion on the matter.

"There are always controversies, but they are part of football," Donato stated at the IV Inclusive Soccer Festival.

"Penalty [on Morata]? The truth is that I do not know. Now there is the referee, there is VAR... there are many factors in deciding whether it was a penalty or not.

"I don't know if [VAR] should have intervened. In my time there was no VAR, so I am old school.

"I don't like so many cameras on the field. It takes away the essence of football," he stressed.

Zinedine Zidane's side emerged victorious from the latest meeting between Madrid's two biggest clubs, yet when Donato was in the Spanish capital, the landscape of the derby was completely different.

"At Atletico, whenever we were going to play Barcelona or Real Madrid, we knew that the referee would always favour the bigger club," Donato explained.

"These are things which a player has to work through on the pitch.

"If there is a referee who is against you, you realise quickly that you're playing against 12."

Los Colchoneros are living through a difficult moment right now, and Simeone is being questioned for perhaps the first time since he took charge of the club, yet Donato believes this is natural after so many years of sustained improvement.

"The work done in recent seasons has been good, but this year they are having more difficulties," he added.

"LaLiga is very close, every team is losing including Real Madrid and Barcelona, and that is a sign that the rest of the teams have improved a lot.

"Celta Vigo, for example, have a very good team but are down at the bottom, what about Deportivo La Coruna in the Segunda? They couldn't beat anybody, but now have won six in a row, who can predict football?"

When pressed on Simeone's future, the former Atleti star was quick to defend the work done by the Argentine and suggested any notion of making a coaching change was premature.

"Cholo is a great coach who identifies well with Atletico Madrid supporters, I don't think any changes need to be made," he intimated.

"The club trusts him and every single fan is with him.

"There is no need to change this, obviously things aren't going well right, but this is something that happens to other teams too."