Barcelona’s defeat to Real Sociedad on Sunday night was fraught with incident and VAR audio of some of the biggest incidents has now been released.
Hansi Flick’s side thought they had opened the scoring through Fermín Lopez but found the goal disallowed for an attacking foul on Dani Olmo.
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VAR Carlos del Cerro Grande advised referee Gil Manzano to check the screen, saying: “I recommend that a potential infringement be reviewed.”
Then he was heard saying: “Everybody sit down, sit down. I’m going to tell you something, you have to let me work. You have to let VAR and me work. It’s impossible in this situation.”
“Look. The change of possession happened without a Barcelona player ever touching the ball but a Real Sociedad player kicking it. I’ll show you the replay so you can see it.
Manzano replied: “My feeling is that the Barcelona player stole the ball by touching it, but he never actually touched the ball; he kicked Kubo Takehiro’s leg, so what he did was a foul. The ball was regained through the foul. I’m going to restart the game by losing the ball, okay?”
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Barcelona’s subsequent goals from Frenkie de Jong and Lamine Hjalmar were disallowed for offside. The VAR picture shows how strict the decision to disallow Yamal’s goal was.
The audio also shows that Carlos Soler was sent off for a foul on Pedri. The Real Sociedad player was initially shown a yellow card, but it was upgraded to a red card following a VAR review.
Manzano was advised: “I suggest that a potential serious foul be reviewed. Let me know when you come on the screen. Listen, I will show you the point of contact and, most importantly, the twisting action it caused on the Barcelona player, okay?”
The match referee then responded: “Phew, perfect. It puts the opponent’s health at risk, okay? Even if he falls, a sprained ankle could hurt him. I’ll give him a red card for a serious foul.”
Soler was subsequently sent off but the home side still held on to take all three points.
