The Catalan sports press highlighted the referees’ performance after Real Madrid’s victory over Real Sociedad, and harshly criticised what they consider to be errors or dubious actions that have facilitated the team’s return to the top.
Nobody has been left indifferent by this Real Sociedad-Real Madrid. And even less so on Catalan soil. The Barcelona-friendly press did not hesitate to attack VAR’s role and the referees involved to insinuate an alleged arbitration benefit in favour of Madrid in their return to leadership.
Sport came out against the referee’s ‘poor’ decisions, including the penalty. This newspaper talks about the “Scandal in Anoeta” on its front page and calls the penalty against Vinicius “dubious”, as well as recalling the other two controversial moves.
Thus, its “Líderes del VAR” (VAR’s leaders) with which it titles its front page reflects the uneasiness existing between the interests against Madrid after the victory against Real Sociedad.
Mundo Deportivo’ goes further and titles its cover with a “Made in Madrid” that has little to explain. In his case, the newspaper changes the “possible”, “dubious” or “controversial” for “debatable” and directly deny the penalty to Vinicius and Merino’s offside, as well as assuring that there was a handball by Benzema in the 0-2 goal.
But the complaint does not only focus on the Reale Arena. MD extends the “blessing” of VAR to Madrid to the three matches that have been played since the break.
