He Barcelona was once again favored by a decision of the referees. Cesar Soto Grado avoided giving a clear penalty Gerard Martin about Iago Aspas for knocking him down in the area with a push, which was also the second yellow card and therefore the expulsion of the young culé. The attacker of Celtic of Vigo He went off alone against Iñaki Peña, after taking advantage of the fact that, on this occasion, Barça had not taken the offside line well.
Aspas headed towards the box and that’s when Gerard Martín clearly put his arm into the Celta player’s side, which he ended up knocking down. Even though it was more than clear and the action deserved a minimum of yellow, since he was also the last defender, Soto Grado didn’t whistle anything.
The Rioja referee considered that there was nothing punishable and, the worst part, was that the VAR considered the same thing. At no point did Trujillo Suárez intervene to tell the field referee to come and watch the action repeat due to a possible penalty.
The gift for Barcelona was therefore twofold. Flick’s men, who were winning 0-1 at Balaídos at that time, saw how they were miraculously saved from a penalty against them and found themselves with one penalty less. Gerard Martín was booked in the 4th minute and, in the 27th minute, he brought down Iago Aspas in the area. Celta could have equalized and, moreover, benefited from numerical superiority for an hour.
