Imagine that even the cult Chiringuito program dropped the soap opera Kylian Mbappé for a few minutes on Wednesday evening to take an interest in the match between Espanyol Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid (3-3). It must be said that an infrequent event in 2023 had all the perfect controversy in this spectacular meeting. In the 44th minute of play, at 0-1, after two chained attempts from Saul Niguez and Yannick Carrasco having provoked parades from Fernando Pacheco (and a post), Antoine Griezmann quietly thought of doubling the bet in the empty goal. But the Espanyol goalkeeper pulls away and takes the ball out at the cost of an incredible dive and a headline on his line.
In any case, this is what Mario Melero Lopez, the referee of this meeting, thinks, who lets the game continue. Problem: it is played a few centimeters away and La Liga, unlike our Ligue 1, is not equipped with goal line technology, which leaves no room for doubt by operating with sensors. It is therefore a VAR referee, relying on his interpretation of a still image, who alerts Mario Melero Lopez to tell him that the goal must be validated. Except that no video image broadcast Wednesday evening proves that this strike from “Grizou” is well returned at 100% (action at 3’15 ” on the video above).
“The situation is not clear”
“The club has officially requested the image where we can clearly see that the ball enters because in the only image we have, Pacheco covers the ball which we do not see, indicated the Espanyol coach Luis Garcia after the game. The other image is from the spider cam [capture d’écran ci-dessous] and depending on the perspective, as happens in tennis, the ball can be inside or not inside. The VAR tool is very good but normally it informs the referees when the situation is clear. And there, it was not the case, at least according to the images that we have. »
An opinion that can be heard, especially since Espanyol (19th) has made a crazy comeback (from 0-3 to 63rd at 3-3) and that it can still hope to stay in La Liga, three points behind. on the first non-relegable two days from the end. Suffice to say that this possible “phantom goal”, an expression given by José Mourinho after the highly contentious goal granted to Luis Garcia (a namesake of the Espanyol coach) in the semi-final second leg of the Champions League Liverpool-Chelsea (0-0, 1-0) in 2005, falls very badly for the Catalan club.