Barcelona were upset about Gil Manzano this weekend after he officiated their match at Málaga on Saturday. André Gomes and Mathieu felt they should have had penalties in the first half, but more importantly so did Sergi Roberto when he was brought down just inside the area by Charles, the referee awarding a free kick outside of the box. Barça were a goal down at the time, and went to on to lose 2-0 in the end. Gil also sent off Neymar for a second bookable offence, and then reported the forward for ironic applause leaving the pitch (see “Villains” section for more), which will mean he will be banned for the upcoming game at Real Madrid. It wasn’t all one way though, Gil disallowing a strike by Peñaranda for a questionable offside decision, and also giving a free kick to Pablo Fornals outside of the area when he could also have pointed to the penalty spot.
As mentioned in our report last weekend, the Video Assisted Refereeing system could have helped with some of those decisions, and Sporting will certainly agree after González González allowed an early headed goal from Real Sociedad’s Willian José to stand, even though keeper Cuéllar claimed he had got the ball away before it fully crossed the line. Did he though? The post-match television round-up show spent fifteen minutes looking at the play from several angles, and even then they couldn’t be sure. VAR would have clarified the situation straight away! (11.04.17)
Name | Games played | Yellow cards | Red cards | Total |
Gil Manzano | 21 | 139 | 9 | 148 |
Estrada Fernández | 19 | 131 | 11 | 142 |
Iglesias Villanueva | 19 | 118 | 4 | 122 |
Jaime Latre | 20 | 115 | 5 | 120 |
Alvarez Izquierdo | 18 | 107 | 5 | 112 |
Martínez Munuera | 20 | 107 | 4 | 111 |
Hernández Hernández | 19 | 101 | 7 | 108 |
González González | 23 | 103 | 5 | 108 |
Clos Gómez | 18 | 100 | 6 | 106 |
Del Cerro Grande | 16 | 96 | 8 | 104 |