Frenkie De Jong may have missed the point.
Barcelona were thumped 4-0 in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final against Atletico Madrid and are on the brink of exiting the competition in shock circumstances.
Atleti scored all of their goals in a first-half for the ages where Barca couldn’t get up off the ropes.
At the start of the second period, Barca had the ball in the net through Pau Cubarsi, but a six minute VAR review overturned the goal as offside.
The Spanish refereeing committee have since confirmed that semi-automated offside technology was unavailable for the goal as there was glut of players inline making its use impossible.
Manual lines had to be drawn, and in De Jong’s view, they were all over the place.
“I saw the image afterward and you can clearly see that there was no offside,” the Dutchman said.
“In the image shown on television regarding the offside, you can’t see the contact with the ball, and then you see the image where Fermín shoots and the defender is a meter behind Robert. I think it’s very strange.
“He (the referee) can’t do much, because he’s also waiting. He doesn’t have the image or the video. But VAR does.
“The image I saw, if it’s not AI, which you don’t realise anymore… If this is the photo, it’s a scandal because it’s very clear.”
What did Hansi Flick say about Barcelona’s defeat?
Barca coach Hansi Flick did comment on the overruled goal, but wasn’t as angry as De Jong with his team’s performance far more concerning.
“When I saw the replay, it was clear there was no offside,” he said.
“Perhaps they saw something different. Then they should tell us. There’s no communication.”
He added: “We didn’t play well. We have to go into the second leg.
“We have to win 2-0 in the first half and 2-0 in the second. It will be very difficult, but we’re going to fight for it.
“We talked about the different situations and how we had to do better. We didn’t see the team I want to see in the first half.”
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