Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Porto, which continued Barcelona’s 100% record in the Champions League, was far from straightforward for the Catalans, and there were several flashpoints throughout the 90 minutes.
Porto were incensed that they weren’t awarded two penalties during the match. Jules Kounde appeared the foul Mehdi Taremi inside the box in the first half, while Joao Cancelo handled in the second period. The latter was awarded at the time, but was overturned by VAR after an earlier infringement.
Antonio Mateu Lahoz, one of Spanish football’s most notorious referees until his retirement in the summer, reflected on the two incidents, and admitted (via Sport) that Barcelona were fortunate on both occasions.
“Kounde takes a big risk (by diving in). If Anthony Taylor were to give a penalty, he would have no complaints.
“I am left with doubts about Cancelo’s handball. I don’t know if it’s a handball by the Porto player. In the shots I see, it within the laws. Thus, it should have been a penalty.”
Barcelona won’t be giving the situation much thought, as they will only be thankful for the three points. However, they certainly appear to have got away with one (or two).
No you don’t say
Well, we should have gotten two against Inter last year so I guess that means we’re even.
But can we agree that the referee is really mediocre. Both teams were in a disadvantage caused by this referee, Barca with their unnecessary booked players (Red card is acceptable honestly, Yellow cards? Lot of unnecessary yellows) and Porto with their penalty chances. Another thing is that the referee also done a really horrid job in Premier League. What were UEFA and PGMOL thinking hiring this guy as a referee, especially allowing him to officiating a high profile competitions, both Premier League and Champions League?
We can agree that referees make mistakes, and some of them are costly and inexcusable.
Some referees are worse than others, and I find it a little ironic that the one used as a source in this article was basically forced to retire for being wildly erratic and inconsistent.
For me if it was possible referees and var officials should all be either ex professional footballers or ex professional football managers or at least have some experience of it,i know even if they were there they all are still going to have varied and differing opinions on footballing decisions thats only natural everyone has their own opinions and outlook on things and thats fine but imo they would at the very least have a much better understanding and view on all the refereeing and var decision cock ups we are all currently witnessing in every football league and competition and we would maybe see alot less of them maybe,maybe not.
If they were to go down this road though not that i think they ever will unfortunately imo they would have to have a massive representation of ex professional footballers and managers from lots of different football clubs not just a few,this way no one then could say but he or she was biased towards their former club that’s why they gave or came to that decision ect ect especially with all the social media crap there is around today.
But then again alot of people love all the controversy in sport not just football either caused by the likes of var and refereeing ect and feel that without it there the sport would become bland and boring and they would most probably stop watching and supporting it,either way whatever happens though you are never going to please everyone and that’s a fact.
Agree. Well, that’s unfortunate that in this match Barca and Porto got the worse kind of of those bunch. Hopefully when they meet again, they will get better refereeing