Not much to see in the city derby between Barcelona and Espanyol. Marcos Alonso went from hero to anti-hero by scoring the opening goal early on, but was the reason for Espanyol’s equalizer in the second half with a penalty violation. Still, the Spanish defender would not be the star of the evening. That honor went to infamous referee Mateu Lahoz. In a negative sense anyway. Lahoz drew red no less than three times in a minute, one of which was eventually erased.
Barcelona seemed a long way to victory against Espanyol after an early header from Marcos Alonso. But when the same Alonso unluckily stepped on Joselu’s shoe, Espanyol still had a chance to equalize.
Joselu didn’t fail, so Espanyol still won a point. Still, Marcos Alonso would not attract all the attention. That went to referee Mateu Lahoz. The Spanish ref lost the pedals ten minutes before the end and drew the red no less than three times in one minute. First he shoved a red cardboard under Jordi Alba’s nose after he got yellow twice for protest. A few seconds later he gave Vinicius Souza (ex-KV Mechelen) a second yellow card for a late tackle and at the same time gave Cabrera a red card for foul kicks.
The latter in particular was a very strict decision. The VAR therefore felt compelled to call Lahoz to the screen. After a quick look, he decided that Cabrera didn’t really commit a foul and therefore didn’t deserve a red card.
Striking: Mateu Lahoz also ended up in the eye of the storm at the World Cup in Qatar after he drew no fewer than 19 (!) yellow cards and one red card in the match between Argentina and the Netherlands. Afterwards there was not a single Argentinian or Dutchman who had a good word about the Spanish number one.
