Referee says sensitive sentence, fuels anger in Real Madrid - Barca match

The El Clasico match between Real Madrid and Barcelona in round 35 of La Liga last night (May 11) witnessed a lot of controversy related to the refereeing issue. Referee Alejandro Hernandez, who was "attacked" by Real Madrid before the match, made many decisions that were considered favorable to the Spanish Royal team.

The referee said the ball touched Fermin Lopez's hand before he kicked the ball into Real Madrid's net (Screenshot).

First, Mbappe appeared to be offside in the situation that brought Real Madrid a penalty in the 3rd minute. Then, Valverde stepped on Yamal's foot before developing the ball leading to Real Madrid's second goal in the 14th minute.

In the 80th minute, referee Hernandez denied Barcelona a penalty despite Tchouameni touching his hand in the penalty area. In the 90+5 minute, he denied Fermin Lopez a goal because he thought the ball touched the player's hand before scoring.

Referee Hernandez's decisions made Barcelona members and fans very angry.

However, things went even further when the Spanish Football Federation released a recording of the conversation between referee Hernandez and referee Martinez Munuera during each phase of the match.

One of them, the VAR referee exclaimed "Thank God" when he saw Fermin Lopez touch his hand before scoring. That makes people have the right to doubt the transparency of the match.

Referee Martinez Munuera said: "Listen Alex (short for referee Hernandez)! We just found out the ball touched the hand. Please go and see. With this situation, thank God. It is definitely a handball situation".

Referee Hernandez replied: "Okay. Perfect. The ball definitely hit his hand. Give me a wider angle to see what happened. Okay. Perfect. It's clear that his hand went up. I'll cancel the goal immediately."

Tchouameni let the ball touch his hand in the penalty area but the referee did not award Barcelona a penalty (Screenshot).

Speaking about this situation, former referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez shared: "In my opinion, this was not a handball that touched Lopez. It was not intentional. The ball touched his hand but then fell down and lost control. It was not a foul."

Many people compared it to the previous situation where the ball touched Tchouameni's hand but referee Hernandez did not award Barcelona a penalty. That made the Barcelona players and coaching staff very upset.

The recent matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid have been heated over refereeing issues. In the Spanish King's Cup final, referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea made several controversial decisions. Real Madrid players reacted strongly at the end of the match and received three red cards. Among them, Rudiger even tried to rush onto the pitch to hit the referee.

After losing to Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid have virtually given up on the La Liga title race. They are now 7 points behind Barca with only 3 rounds left in the season.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/trong-tai-noi-cau-nhay-cam-thoi-bung-su-phan-no-o-tran-real-madrid-barca-20250512111859944.htm