Barcelona suffered a tough defeat against Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano. A 4-0 defeat made it very difficult for the Catalans to reach the final. However, in addition to the result, the Catalan club are furious at referee Martinez Munuela’s decision after seven minutes of VAR deliberations, which led to Barcelona’s goal being canceled, and the sending off of Eric García.
The outrage is so great that the Catalan club is said to be so outraged by Munuera’s actions that they are considering sending a formal complaint to the federation regarding Munuera’s officiating. First of all, complaints end up being directed at unsanctioned targets after a very long review in the VOR room.
Barcelona believe that this offside should be semi-automatic and that the play should not be discussed for many minutes. The Catalan club will seek an explanation for this play, in addition to the huge amount of displeasure within the club for this reason.
Complaints will also focus on Eric Garcia’s sending off, which is considered unfair. And above all, it is a relative dissatisfaction. In a previous incident involving Atletico, an Atletico Madrid player, particularly Giuliano, was not sent off for a tackle on Balde. It was very difficult to return to Barcelona. “We are always hurt by referees” and “I’ve never seen anything like this with VAR” were heard.
The anger was already visible in the comments made by the protagonists after the match. “In the offside footage they showed, you couldn’t see any contact with the ball during the shot, but there was footage of Fermin taking the shot and the defender was one meter behind Robert. If what is called is the footage I saw and it’s not AI or something, then that’s a scandal, because it’s very obvious,” de Jong said.
“I don’t understand it. I don’t see any improvement with VAR. I feel it’s becoming more and more difficult to understand the decisions. It takes 10 minutes to make a decision…” Deco said. “Offside is shameful. We know what we’re facing,” coach Eric Garcia said.
