Last week, FC Barcelona suffered a 2-1 defeat in the Catalan derby against local rivals Girona at the Estadi Montilivi.
Barcelona took the lead through Pau Cubarsí in the second half, but minutes later, Thomas Lemar equalized for Girona.
When the match seemed headed for a draw, Fran Beltrán stepped up and scored what proved to be the match-winning goal for the hosts.
However, there was much controversy surrounding the goal as Girona’s Claudio Echeverri clearly stepped on Jules Koundé during the buildup, but the on-field referee, Cesar Soto Grado, overlooked the incident, and VAR official David Galvez Rascon also ignored it.
The Referees’ Technical Committee (CTA) analyzed the incident on the program ‘Tiempo de Revisión’ and admitted an error was made by VAR.
The CTA insisted that VAR should have intervened after the goal was scored since the on-field referee failed to penalize the infringement.
The step on Koundé left no room for interpretation and occurred during the same attacking phase that led to the goal.
“VAR considers it an action open to interpretation by the referee. But if a player steps on an opponent with unnecessary force, it must be penalized,” the CTA explained.
“According to the Technical Committee of Referees, the Girona striker recklessly stepped on his opponent, taking him out of the defensive play.”
Making it clear this was an error, the CTA added: “This infraction should be punished with a foul and a yellow card. VAR should have intervened as it was an obvious, clear, and manifest error.”
The result cost Barcelona a valuable point and their place at the top of the La Liga table. However, with Real Madrid losing to Osasuna over the weekend and Barcelona beating Levante, Hansi Flick and his team are back on top.
