Ref controversy in derby defeat: why Barça feel hard done by again | OneFootball

Only after the 0-4 defeat at Atletico Madrid did FC Barcelona file a formal referee complaint with the Spanish Football Federation. In yesterday’s derby loss (1-2 in Girona), there were immediately more situations in which the Catalans felt disadvantaged. 

Fans online, for example, criticized the decision not to retake the penalty missed by Lamine Yamal shortly before halftime with the score at 0-0.

In various images, you can see that players from both teams apparently entered the penalty area too early—which in that case would normally have meant a new chance for the shooter. 

However, it was this scene that caused even more controversy: Shortly before Girona’s decisive winning goal (final score 2-1), Echeverri stepped on Barca’s Jules Koundé’s foot. Moments later, the ball reached Fran Beltran via Roca, who slotted it into the bottom left corner. The duel just before, which was definitely right on the edge of a foul, was waved through by VAR.

A decision that not all observers can understand—and not all players on the pitch either.

Thus, the scorer of Barca’s temporary lead, Pau Cubarsí, said after the final whistle about the scene: “Everyone has already seen it, I won’t give my opinion on it. People already know what happened. But we also have to do better, because they can’t just score two goals against us. We played a bad game and need to look at ourselves first.”

And German coach Hansi Flick also seems to have had enough of publicly discussing questionable referee decisions. He too kept quiet: “I don’t want to talk about it, because everyone saw the situation before the second goal.”

In the end, however, Flick said that Girona deserved the win from his point of view. After the final whistle, Flick explained that he would give his players two days off so they could rest and then calmly prepare for the next match. 

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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