Referee Hernández shocks both Real Madrid and Barcelona in "El Clasico"

(NLDO) – The sound heard from the VAR team "Thank God" after Fermin Lopez's handball in the 90+5 minute made public opinion more angry about the refereeing.

If the VAR referee had not caught a mistake when Federcio Valverde flicked the ball into his hand near the touchline, Fermin Lopez would have been happy with his fifth goal against Real Madrid in the 35th round of La Liga on May 11. Barcelona fans were outraged when the audio recorded from the VAR room was leaked on social media after the match and expressed doubts about the impartiality of the refereeing team in charge of this match.

The above incident was the last straw when one puts together all the controversial decisions made by referee Alejandro Hernández and VAR officer Juan Munuera during the match. What issue caused both Real Madrid and Barcelona to react so strongly during and after the "El Clasico" if not the referee's behavior.

Let's review the controversial situations:

Minute 3: Penalty for Real Madrid

Pau Cubarsi missed the ball, allowing Mbappe to run down and be fouled by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny in the box. Referee Hernandez was right in his decision to blow the whistle, but VAR referee Munuera seemed to have overlooked the situation where Mbappe was in an offside position when receiving a through ball from Federico Valverde from midfield.

Mbappe was offside when he got down to receive the ball from Valverde.

Minute 14: Ignore Valverde's mistake

Referee Hernandez may have missed the action because it happened so quickly, but VAR Munuera did nothing to help Barcelona react to the incident. Slow-motion replays showed Federico Valverde stepping on Lamine Yamal's right foot during a challenge in midfield.

Valverde kicked Yamal straight in the leg

Real Madrid won the ball after this situation and Jude Bellingham pushed it down the left wing to Vinicius. The ball was passed to Mbappe who was running down and in a one-on-one position, the French striker had no difficulty in shooting past Szczesny, making it 2-0 for Real Madrid.

Minute 32: De Jong let the ball touch his hand before the equalizer 2-2

Lamine Yamal received the ball back from Ferran Torres and unleashed a classy curling shot that flew into the far corner of Real Madrid's goal. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois jumped out with all his might but still couldn't stop the 17-year-old striker from scoring a masterpiece.

Frenkie de Jong appears to have handled the ball

However, before Yamal scored, captain Frenkie de Jong appeared to have handled the ball. Slow-motion replays showed the ball bouncing up and hitting the Dutch midfielder’s outstretched left arm. Referee Hernández made no signal, and referee Munuera did not intervene, instead stepping in to see if it was a handball.

Minute 37: No red card for Tchouameni

Barcelona counter-attacked quickly with Ferran Torres running with the ball. The No.7 tried to push the ball past Aurelien Tchouaméni before getting one-on-one with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. There was no doubt that Tchouaméni had fouled Ferran from behind with the push sending him sprawling to the ground.

Tchouaméni must have fouled Ferran Torres from behind

Referee Hernández showed the Real Madrid centre-back a yellow card instead of a red, because in this situation, Ferran Torres could have escaped and scored. Having committed a foul to prevent a situation that could have led to a goal, Tchouaméni deserved a red card.

Minute 42: Real Madrid's penalty was canceled

Jude Bellingham crossed the ball to Kylian Mbappe and the French striker went down immediately after colliding with De Jong. Referee Hernandez, in a good viewing position, immediately pointed to the penalty spot. However, slow-motion replays showed that De Jong had pulled his leg back, there was no contact and Mbappe appeared to have gone down.

De Jong hadn't even touched his foot yet when Mbappe fell to the ground.

Barcelona players reacted furiously and the semi-automatic offside technology determined that Bellingham was offside by the shoulder, not Mbappe falling in the box. The referee overturned the penalty decision, did not show Mbappe a card for diving but still showed reserve defender Ronald Araujo a yellow card for protesting.

Minute 80: Real Madrid escapes penalty

Lamine Yamal's shot was not able to beat goalkeeper Courtois. Ferran Torres's rebound shot in the penalty area hit Tchouameni's outstretched arm. Torres and his teammates demanded a penalty, but referee Alejandro Hernandez did not stop the match.

The ball hit Tchouameni's hand very clearly.

After consulting with the VAR room, referee Hernandez reviewed the pitchside monitor and decided to let the match continue even though the image clearly showed the ball touching Tchouameni's hand.

Minute 90+5: Barcelona's goal was denied

Fermin Lopez challenged Valverde on the left wing, beat three Real Madrid players and then charged into the box, shooting past goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. The celebrations of Fermin Lopez and his teammates before the decisive goal were quickly cut short when the referee reviewed VAR and determined that Lopez had handled the ball from the touchline.

Valverde flicked the ball into Fermin Lopez's hand

Barcelona were unhappy with this decision but did not react strongly because at that time they were very close to winning and successfully defended the score 4-3 until the end of the match.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/trong-tai-hernandez-gay-soc-ca-real-madrid-lan-barcelona-o-el-clasico-196250512095011211.htm