Jules Koundé thought he had scored a splendid double during Barça’s big victory against Betis (5-1) in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday. But his second goal was disallowed by a few millimeters, which he ironically blamed on the shape of his shoes.
Jules Koundé (26 years old) shone again on Wednesday with Barça. Captain of Hansi Flick’s team on his right side, the French international (40 caps) turned into a scorer during the big victory against Real Betis (5-1) in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey in sumptuously concluding an offering from Lamine Yamal (27th). He even thought he had scored the first double of his career with another splendid strike in stoppage time in the first period (45th + 4).
“Maybe we need to change the shape of my preds”
Still offset by Lamine Yamal, the former Bordeaux player sent a missile under the bar of the Sevillian goal. But his joy was dampened for nothing. The match referee canceled his goal for an offside of half a millimeter, the VAR revealer showing a tiny piece of his shoe located behind the last defender. A very strict and frustrating application of the regulations that the 2022 world vice-champion took with humor.
At the end of the match, he posted an image of the VAR revealer showing the toe of his shoe offside, questioning his equipment supplier, Adidas, about the shoe which would have deprived him of this unprecedented double. “adidas, maybe we need to change the shape of my preds (predator, the model of its shoes, Editor’s note),” he wrote.
-Jules Koundé appears alongside Lamine Yamal and Gavi, this Wednesday, among the players praised by the Catalan press for their great performance during this meeting. He was “a huge full-back”, launches Mundo Deportivo which welcomes his connection with Yamal. If Barça concluded 2024 with two defeats in La Liga, it resumed 2025 with four consecutive successes in the Cup, two in the Copa del Rey and the other two in the Spanish Super Cup won against Real Madrid (5-2), Sunday.
“Today was an important victory after beating Real Madrid,” said Hansi Flick after the match. “We saw what the team can do. We traveled, we didn’t train on Monday, we only trained on Tuesday. The performance was good from the start. We controlled the game.”
