Ex-referee Iturralde reacts to 'thank God' comment from VAR officials after Fermin’s disallowed goal in Clasico
Ex-referee Eduardo Iturralde has explained the VAR officials' reaction to the disallowed goal by Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez.
On May 11, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 4-3 in the Clasico during the 35th round of La Liga.
In the 5th minute of stoppage time, Fermin Lopez scored what seemed to be Barcelona’s fifth goal. However, the referee Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez disallowed the goal after reviewing the video footage, noticing that during the goal-scoring attack, the ball had hit Fermin's hand while battling Federico Valverde.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) released the details of the conversation between the referees regarding this incident. It was revealed that one of the referees said: "[The hand] is raised, thank God. Yes, exactly."
"Do you know why this could have happened? Because there are three people in the VAR room. The one who should have seen [the moment] didn’t, but the other one did.
One is watching from one camera, the other from another. The first one, who should have checked, didn’t see it, and the second one noticed it and said from the heart: 'Damn, thank God we saw the hand,'" said former referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez.
