La Liga title chances for Barcelona suffered a huge blow after their blockbuster of a match against main rivals, Real Madrid. El Clasico is widely regarded as the most competitive and most heated rivalry in all of football and the match meant even more to both the teams as the win would help them overtake the other in the league table. Madrid ended up winning the match 2-1 however, the main highlight of the match had to be the penalty controversy at the end and Ronald Koeman was left fuming after the referee decided that it was not a penalty.
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The match was well contested as expected from the two teams and both the teams had their plans laid out. The Catalans had decided to play their signature possession-based football while the Madristas had decided to counter that play with a more defensive and counter-attacking style. At the end of the day it was Zidane’s men who came out on top courtesy of a beautiful Karim Benzema goal and a Toni Kroos free-kick. Barca did get a goal back via Oscar Mingueza but they were unable to tie up the game.
Ronald Koeman extremely angry after Barcelona defeat
At the dying moments of the game, it seemed like Ferland Mendy had pushed and tripped Martin Braithwaite inside the penalty box. After a VAR check, it was deemed to be not a penalty and Los Blancos secured the three points. After the match, the Dutch manager gave an interview with Moviestar+ which he ended abruptly after getting angry at the reporter. He said,
"“We are really angry about the situation with the penalty,that’s not fair play. If you don’t give the penalty — I don’t understand that.”“I only ask the referees to get decisions right. It’s a penalty and only four minutes of stoppage time was given, despite the referee having [to stop for a period] because he had a problem with his headset.”“It’s a very clear penalty. And if it had been given it’s 2-2. It’s such a clear penalty. I don’t know why we have VAR in Spain.”Source Goal"
The manager then asked the reporter on whether he thought it was a penalty or not and the reporter said that it was up to the referees to decide. Koeman took offense to that statement and gave a short reply before leaving the interview session. He replied,
"“If you want to sit on the fence, sit on the fence!”"
Ronald Koeman was visibly angry as the Blaugrana have had a lot of decisions go against them this season and in such a critical game, they needed all the luck they had. While the touch on Braithwaite did seem like a minor one, pushing an opponent in the penalty area should be a penalty.
According to the new rules, it is a penalty even if the push or foul is not intentional. Even in their last match, a penalty controversy happened which also landed in the favor of Madrid.
However, nothing can be done now and Barcelona must hope that the Whites drop points if they want to win this year’s La Liga.
On top of that, they still have to face the league leaders Atletico Madrid and that will be a very tough game. Still, they should keep their heads up and play every game like it’s their last game, and then maybe they can still go on to win the league.
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