Barcelona Stars Slam VAR After Lamine Yamal's Controversial Disallowed Goal

Neither the Barcelona players nor Hansi Flick were satisfied with the refereeing performance of Jesus Gil Manzano and VAR Carlos del Cerro Grande in the match against Real Sociedad. Barcelona had three goals disallowed on their way to a 2-1 loss, but the one scored by Lamine Yamal was the incident that sparked the greatest controversy. The decision was extremely tight. In fact, some observers did not even see an offside offence in the replay when the lines were drawn, but despite this, the referee disallowed the goal. Fermin Lopez takes to social media Frenkie de Jong complained about the referee, and after the match, Fermin Lopez posted a photograph of the incident on his social media, accompanied by laughing face emojis. The goal would have put Barcelona ahead in the first half. Fermin’s Instagram post reflected the anger within the Barcelona squad over the refereeing decisions made by Gil Manzano on the pitch and Del Cerro Grande in the VAR room, two officials who have been involved in controversial situations before. Last season, the VAR referee had already disallowed a highly contentious goal by Robert Lewandowski. Flick himself referred to that incident in his post-match press conference and replied in Spanish: “Good job”. The controversial incident The controversial moment occurred in the 28th minute. During sustained pressure inside the Real Sociedad penalty area, a series of rebounds ended with Lamine Yamal pouncing on a loose ball and beating Alex Remiro to score. However, after a lengthy review by the VAR room and an explanation given by Gil Manzano to the captains, the goal was not allowed to stand. The decision caused significant confusion, as television replays and the VAR images shown afterwards were hardly convincing – something which Eric Garcia pointed out. Fermin, whose first goal of the match was disallowed for a previous foul by Olmo, made light of the offside call that ruled out Lamine’s strike.