Joan Garcia put in his best performance yet in a Barcelona shirt against former side Espanyol, making a string of wonder saves.
The Spanish shot-stopper secured a 2-0 win away from home in which Barca were largely outplayed.
He staged a number of sublime saves, but also showed elite command of his penalty box when rushing out to stop a one-v-one chance.
Yet another of his remarkable moments in the box has now been called illegal by a former referee.
With the score 0-0 in the 20th minute a loose ball was ready to be tapped in by an Espanyol attacker, and Garcia was completely blinded by his own defender Gerard Martin.
However, he improvised brilliantly, shoving Martin out of the way and spreading his body for a save.
In the end the ball struck Martin instead, but his decision making stopped what looked like a sure goal.
Yet reflecting on the moment, former long-time Spanish referee Mateu Lahoz said: “This is stipulated by FIFA as unsportsmanlike conduct.
“Joan García cannot perform this action.”
Lahoz went on to explain that Espanyol should’ve been given an indirect free kick inside the Barca box.
However, such an event is not reviewable by VAR, so there was no chance of the incident being overturned once the referee missed it.
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