La Liga's media strategy when awarding the best player of the match to Rashford?

It was a surprise when Rashford received the best player award of the match, even though his team suffered a 1-4 defeat against Sevilla.

Rashford scored to reduce the score for Barcelona after a beautiful pass from Pedri - Photo: REUTERS

La Liga has just caused a huge wave of controversy in the global football fan community when it made a confusing decision about the Man of the Match (MOTM) award.

Specifically, striker Rashford (Barcelona) was honored even though his team had just suffered a disastrous 1-4 defeat against Sevilla on the evening of October 5.

The shocking moment happened in the 9th minute of injury time in the second half, when the score was already 4-1 in favor of Sevilla, the match screen suddenly showed Rashford as the winner of the MOTM award. This made the fans extremely surprised, because apart from the goal to reduce the score to 1-2 at the end of the first half, the performance of this 27-year-old player was not really outstanding. He even missed a good chance when facing the opposing goalkeeper.

La Liga turned Rashford into a laughing stock when awarding the best player of the match despite Barcelona's 1-4 defeat to Sevilla - Photo: screenshot

The online community reacted strongly to this decision. One fan commented: "Rashford was at his best when Barca lost 1-4, it's hard to understand", while another bluntly called it "La Liga's farce".

Many opinions say that the tournament organizers are prioritizing popularity: "La Liga is willing to award a player who doesn't play well but is famous to attract media attention."

In fact, Rashford's performance was not highly appreciated by the websites. According to Sofascore data, the English striker received 7 points, lower than all three players on the home team Sevilla's attack line such as Alexis Sanchez (7.1 points), Isaac Romero (7.3 points) and Ruben Vargas (7.4 points).

This was Barcelona's first loss in La Liga after 10 years against Sevilla, causing the "Catalan Giant" to immediately lose the top spot to arch-rival Real Madrid.

At the end of the match, Rashford had to leave the field with signs of injury, further highlighting a bad night for the team. Midfielder Pedri (Barcelona) admitted: "There were too many bad things. When we had the ball, we didn't know how to escape the pressure. In defense, the defenders were not decisive. We need to review the mistakes to learn lessons."

TUAN LONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chien-luoc-truyen-thong-cua-la-liga-khi-trao-giai-cau-thu-hay-nhat-tran-cho-rashford-20251006105952351.htm